Top 66 Mandela Quotes

Nelson Mandela will always be the face of South Africa. The traveler passing through the country will see Mandela’s face almost everywhere he looks. Truly, the man is omnipresent.

I’m real sexy and I make sexy music so I’m going to be Prince meets Nelson Mandela.

There may never be another Madiba. But instead of waiting for the next Nelson Mandela to emerge, those whom he universally inspired are now looking to themselves and each other to build their own dream together.

Of all the many leaders I have met in the course of my life, none made a deeper impression on me than Nelson Mandela. His courage, compassion, humility and wisdom were without parallel on the world stage, and he himself was an enduring source of inspiration.

Nelson Mandela is physically separated from us, but his soul and spirit will never die. He belongs to the whole world because he is an icon of equality, freedom and love, the values we need all the time everywhere.

Of course, Nelson Mandela, everybody knows Nelson Mandela. I mean, he’s a great gift not only for Africa but for the whole world, actually. But do not expect everybody to be a Nelson Mandela.

The children of Qunu stood for hours on the side of a brand new stretch of highway as they waited for the hearse carrying Nelson Mandela to come into view.

The popularity of leaders like Mandela was an invitation to counter-attack by the government. Mandela was banned from speaking, from attending gatherings, from leaving Johannesburg, from belonging to any organization.

From the beginning, Mandela and Tambo was besieged with clients. We were not the only African lawyers in South Africa, but we were the only firm of African lawyers. For Africans, we were the firm of first choice and last resort.

Nelson Mandela is awe inspiring – a person who really sacrificed for what he believed in. I feel truly humbled by him.

The leaders who we admire who have been able to bring great change in the past – Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela – they’re all inspirational religious leaders and smart tacticians. It would be nice to find the Muslim Gandhi, wouldn’t it?

I think power will do anything to survive and one of its main techniques is the rule of exceptions. So it makes an exception out of people and we worship them, whether that’s Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King or Rosa Parks. These people become beatified beyond recognition.

When you don’t have sport, it’s like, oh, what do we fall back onto? And I think Nelson Mandela was the first person to really say that: sport unites people in a way that nothing else does. And if you take sport away, then I don’t know really what we have.

In 1990 there were about 300 scripts being written demanding the release of Nelson Mandela. And suddenly we watched Mandela walking out of prison. So those scripts had to be destroyed.

Nelson Mandela represents an enduring example of the human spirit and he proved for eternity that the ideals of democracy and human rights can overcome even the direst of circumstances.

We want Nelson Mandela and the people of South Africa to know that we will stand shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip, until apartheid is eradicated.

When something happens in Africa, an artist will sing about it and stuff. We have all the records; we have everything. Free Mandela records and all that.

Mandela was chosen as a symbol of the South African struggle, and he did that great. But I wasn’t just happy for him. I was happy for the people.

In 1985, I joined my mother in a protest against apartheid in which we were arrested at the South African embassy in Washington, D.C. And she was at President-elect Mandela’s side in Johannesburg when he claimed victory in South Africa’s first free elections.

We’re trained to see the world in terms of charismatic organizations and charismatic people. That’s who we look to for leadership and change, for transformation. We’re awaiting the next J.F.K., the next Martin Luther King, the next Gandhi, the next Nelson Mandela.

Nelson Mandela, a better man, not a bitter man, made our world a better place in which to live. His life and leadership exemplify the highest courage, dignity, and dedication to human liberation.

Politicians as diverse as Nelson Mandela and Robert Mugabe have been quoted at our team meetings. That is how political England cricket tours have become.

This name Mandela is an albatross around the necks of my family.

I am inspired by the likes of Steve Biko, Nelson Mandela, Princess Diana and those of their calibre. They understood fully what it means to be selfless and to stand for something.

Nelson Mandela is, for me, the single statesman in the world. The single statesman, in that literal sense, who is not solving all his problems with guns. It’s truly unbelievable.

It was deeply important for me to understand where Mandela came from. Because we know where he was going, and that’s a famous story, but who was he? Where did he come from? What was his upbringing?

There were three people I always wanted to meet: Michael Jackson, Muhammad Ali, and Nelson Mandela.

I think our politicians could learn a lot from Mandela.

One of my biggest regrets ever was not taking the time to go to South Africa to meet Nelson Mandela. That is a big regret of mine. I should have figured out a way.

In the late eighties, we decided to rework the 1979 hit ‘El Lute’ and name it ‘Mandela.’

After ‘Homeland,’ I was offered a lot of very authoritarian, square, angry boss types, but I wanted to do something different. Casting directors are surprised when they look at my CV and see all the work I’ve done, from Shakespeare to playing Nelson Mandela.

I like people who are minimalist with their words. Jack Nicholson thinks a lot then says something, and it’s always spot on. Nelson Mandela is the same.

We have a revolutionary history to honor and uphold. Which was what Nelson Mandela did. He reminded us of that which we need to be reminded, over and over again, about our own best selves.

After Versace was murdered, the first person to call me was Mandela.

Nelson Mandela saw the potential of Africa and dedicated his life to changing the world in which we live while inspiring a movement towards social justice, peace and equal human rights.

Nelson Mandela sat in a South African prison for 27 years. He was nonviolent. He negotiated his way out of jail. His honor and suffering of 27 years in a South African prison is really ultimately what brought about the freedom of South Africa. That is nonviolence.

Nelson Mandela just died, so that says so much because it’s a tremendously powerful and great man who was very sensitive. Loved all people, forgave his enemies, and showed the world how to stand up and do it the right way.

When my daughter was born, I called her Ella Bella Mandela, because she was born the day after Mandela was released from prison.

One individual can begin a movement that turns the tide of history. Martin Luther King in the civil rights movement, Mohandas Ganhi in India, Nelson Mandela in South Africa are examples of people standing up with courage and non-violence to bring about needed changes.

It was a hallmark of Nelson Mandela’s leadership that being open to change made him appear not weaker, but even stronger.

Mandela drafted the M Plan, a simple, commonsense plan for organization on a street basis so that Congress volunteers would be in daily touch with the people, alert to their needs and able to mobilize them.

I spent a lot of time with President Mandela supporting his efforts in the peace process in Burundi. The thing that impressed me the most was his humility.

Nelson Mandela understood that social transformation and economic transformation go hand in hand.

In my view, it was no accident that Nelson Mandela was chosen by God to lead the people of South Africa. There are very few people who could be imprisoned, kept away from their family and loved ones, and exit that same prison with such a powerful spirit of love and a desire for reconciliation.

I have always had great respect for former president Mandela. The personal sacrifices he made in order to achieve what was right for the people of South Africa is something I carry with me every day.

Mandela is just the eternal man. You want that man to be around forever. It’s the closest thing we have to God, I think. He’s the father of mankind, almost.

Nostalgia for dead tyrants and the longing for heroes are unhealthy, and they can result in the deification of a Saddam as easily as a Havel or Mandela.

My campaign to become leader of the ANC was pivoted on two things: Renewing the ANC and taking back to the values the were espoused and subscribed to by Nelson Mandela, Oliver Thambo, and many other leaders.

If you look at South Africa and President Nelson Mandela, it was people of the world who held their hands together and stood up to make a difference. So ‘people power’ is important.

Nelson Mandela and Malcolm X came out of prison stronger.

If I win gold, I will dedicate it to Nelson Mandela. He is a hero in South Africa, and everything I do, I do for him.

Just look at the great Nelson Mandela. He came out of prison and saved his entire country. Some of the best people in the world have spent time in prison.