Looking back on Mandela's classic quotes will help you overcome your difficulties in life

Author : Hopely Li Source : Release on : 2016-11-11 11:56:29

'If I had my time over I would do the same again. So would any man who dares call himself a man. '

-Speech in mitigation of sentence after being convicted of inciting workers to strike and leaving the country illegally; at the apartheid court known as the Old Synagogue, Pretoria, November 1962

' During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die. '

-Pretoria Supreme Court, April 20, 1964

' I have never regarded any man as my superior, either in my life outside or inside prison. '

-Letter to Gen. Du Preez, commissioner of prisons, written on Robben Island, Cape Town, July 12, 1976

' I had no specific belief except that our cause was just, was very strong and it was winning more and more support. '

-Robben Island, Feb. 11, 1994

' Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another. '

-Inaugural address, May 9, 1994

' It is never my custom to use words lightly. If 27 years in prison have done anything to us, it was to use the silence of solitude to make us understand how precious words are and how real speech is in its impact on the way people live and die. '

-AIDS conference in Durban, South Africa, July 14, 2000

' What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead. '

-Walter Sisulu's 90th birthday celebration, Johannesburg, May 18, 2002

' We tried in our simple way to lead our life in a manner that may make a difference to those of others. '

-Upon receiving the Roosevelt Institute's Four Freedom Award in Middleburg, Netherlands, June 8, 2002

' Everyone can rise above their circumstances and achieve success if they are dedicated to and passionate about what they do. '

-Letter to Makhaya Ntini, prominent black South African cricketer, Dec. 17, 2009

' There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered. ... The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. ... Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again. ... After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. ... I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. ... Death is something inevitable. When a man has done what he considers to be his duty to his people and his country, he can rest in peace. I believe I have made that effort and that is, therefore, why I will sleep for the eternity. '