Top 241 Mandela Quotes & Sayings

I think our politicians could learn a lot from Mandela.

Mandela's political evolution was gradual.

I am particularly fond of the late President Nelson Mandela. His speeches and courage changed my life and how I see myself. Mandela changed minds, changed lives, and changed the world.

The world thanks you for sharing Nelson Mandela with us.

Even here in America, we felt the cool, refreshing breeze of freedom when Nelson Mandela took the seat of Presidency in his country where formerly he was not even allowed to vote. We were enlarged by tears of pride as we saw Nelson Mandela's former prison guards invited, courteously, by him to watch from the front rows his inauguration.

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.

Unsurprisingly, Nelson Mandela had and still has many detractors.

The famous passage from her book is often erroneously attributed to the inaugural address of Nelson Mandela. About the misattribution Williamson said, "Several years ago, this paragraph from A Return to Love began popping up everywhere, attributed to Nelson Mandela's 1994 inaugural address. As honored as I would be had President Mandela quoted my words, indeed he did not. I have no idea where that story came from, but I am gratified that the paragraph has come to mean so much to so many people.

Nelson Mandela and myself had a wonderful relationship - he was a special man and will be missed.

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

One thing we are sure of is there's no one like Nelson Mandela out there. That's too bad for us.

I always wanted to meet Nelson Mandela, and I have friends who knew him, but I didn't get to meet Mandela. I always thought he was a spectacular character.

From Gandhi to Mandela, from the American patriot to the Polish shipbuilders, the makers of revolutions have not come from the top.

Nelson Mandela knew that sport has the power to inspire and unite people in a way that little else does.

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.

Being black and speaking properly are not mutually exclusive. My father was an African, and he spoke beautifully at home. Nelson Mandela speaks beautifully. Should Mandela put his hat on backwards and say, 'Yo, homey, this is Nelson. Yo, Winnie, yo, this is def'?

Nelson Mandela said: 'It always seems impossible until it's done.' Peace is possible.

Mandela today is almost universally held as a heroic freedom fighter, and of course rightly so.

I believe that anybody with Mandela's capacity to endure hardship and then forgive is a born leader and example to us all.

The first time I was privileged to meet president Mandela was during his visit to Malawi... shortly after he was released from prison. I was amazed by his humility and his great sense of leadership... Mandela's character has shaped my life.

Nelson Mandela and Malcolm X came out of prison stronger.

If Mandela were a comedian, I bet he would never get mad at a heckler, he'd give him or her a hug.

It's hard not to question whether the harsh verdict of Winnie Mandela is a reflection of discomfort with women warriors or, more broadly, with the militant ethos that ultimately became a foil for the popularized representation of Nelson Mandela as the open-armed father of a non-racial nation.

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.

Don't talk to me about what's happened since [Nelson] Mandela! His successor was absolutely hopeless - "no such thing as AIDS" - and this present President... It's a tragedy, you know, what's happened there post-Mandela, because he was an iconic figure.

Mandela did go to prison, and he went in there as a burning revolutionary. But look what came out. Mandela let us down.

It's a blessing that South Africa has a man like Nelson Mandela.

I have a good relationship with Mandela. But I am not Mandela's product. I am the product of the masses of my country and the product of my enemy.

Nelson Mandela was in jail when I was really young, and Winnie Mandela was one of the biggest faces of the movement. In South Africa we have a common phrase - it's like a chant in the street and at rallies: "Wathint' abafazi, wathint' imbokodo." Which means, "You strike a woman, you strike a rock."

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.

Nelson Mandela, Dada Vaswani, Harsh Mander, Shabana Azmi - I admire their humanitarian work. But sadly even Nelson Mandela could not keep corruption out of his cabinet and within a year, I am told, the victims of apartheid turned into perpetrators of corruption on their own people. Greed has no boundaries of colour or country does it?

Along with my father, Mandela is my hero.

Nelson Mandela also spoke about how, as a human being, he's made mistakes.

There was a close relationship between Mandela and the CBC.

It was wicked meeting Nelson Mandela.

To be a philanthropist, you don't have to be Nelson Mandela. You just have to look around you and ask, 'What little bit can I do? Whose life can I touch?'

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

But while Nelson Mandela's work is sadly done, his dream is unfinished.

We don't have politicians with dignity and morals. We never have, not since [Nelson] Mandela and [Mahatma ] Gandhi. It's really rare.

Mandela? He lasted 27 years in prison but he never could've done 30.

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

Nelson Mandela was a towering figure in our time; a legend in life and now in death - a true global hero.

Whenever I am asked who I admire most among the leaders I have met, I have no hesitation in naming Nelson Mandela.

Video screenshot Facts and figures from Nelson Mandela's life, set to the trailer from 'Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.' "Man's goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished."

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

I heard somebody say, 'Where's (Nelson) Mandela?' Well, Mandela's dead. Because Saddam killed all the Mandelas. --George W. Bush, on the former South African president, who is still very much alive, Washington, D.C., Sept. 20, 2007

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

Nelson Mandela can rot in prison until he dies or I die, whichever takes longer.

History will remember Nelson Mandela as a champion for human dignity and freedom, for peace and reconciliation.

When we shot "Cry Freedom," I wasn't even allowed in South Africa. They told me I could come but I wasn't going to leave. I had heavy death threats at that time. So we shot in Zimbabwe. In 1995, I had the privilege and the honor to meet Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela the same day: I had breakfast with Desmond Tutu and lunch with Nelson Mandela. Then I had the good fortune to have Mr. Mandela actually come to my house in California. There's been a tremendous amount of change.

The legacy of Mandela is to have brought the country together... South Africa can be one of the success stories of the 21st century.

Like you do about Nelson Mandela, you can't help feeling the guy's a good man.

[Nelson] Mandela was very keen not to be understood as an exceptional person.

Nelson Mandela stands as an inspiration to us all

I think even though he [Nelson Mandela] was feted and praised as he was, he always was at pains to say, I'm a human being.

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.

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.

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

As we mourn President Mandela’s passing we must ask ourselves the fundamental question - what shall we do to respond to the tasks of building a democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous South Africa, a people-centred society free of hunger, poverty, disease and inequality, as well as Africa’s renaissance, to whose attainment President Nelson Mandela dedicated his whole life?

Nelson Mandela once said "I can't help it if the ladies take note of me; I'm not going to protest."