966 Quotes by Nelson Mandela

That day, Miss Mdingane told me that my new name was Nelson. Why she bestowed this particular name upon me I have no idea. Perhaps it had something to do with the great British sea captain Lord Nelson, but that would be only a guess.

A beautiful and important film about South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It will engage and influence not only South Africans, but people all over the world concerned with the great questions of human reconciliation, forgiveness, and tolerance.

I could not imagine that the future I was walking toward could compare in any way to the past that I was leaving behind.

It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front.

As a leader... I have always endeavored to listen to what each and every person in a discussion had to say before venturing my own opinion. Oftentimes, my own opinion will simply represent a consensus of what I heard in the discussion. I always remember the axiom; a leader is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.

There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested...

It is necessary to heal the wounds of the past If you are going to build your country and to have unity. I am working with people who fought me very bitterly before the elections. It was my responsibility as the man who is leading the majority party, my responsibility to heal the wounds of the past and to work with people who were my opponents.

I should tie myself to no particular system of society other than of socialism.

It was the government that should have been told to refrain from its inhuman policy of violence and massacre, not the African people .... It was further argued that it is wrong and indefensible for a political Organization to repudiate picketing, whi