Nelson Mandela, the former South African president and anti-apartheid icon, died December 5, 2013 following a series of lung infections. He was 95 years old. Mandela joined the African National Congress (ANC) party in the 1940s and led protests against the ruling apartheid regime, which restricted the basic rights of South Africa’s nonwhite population and barred their participation in government. His resistance to such oppressive policies earned him nearly three decades in prison, during which he became an international symbol of the anti-apartheid movement. Upon his release in 1990, Mandela helped negotiate an end to the apartheid system, and four years later he won election as the the first black president of South Africa. He retired from politics in 1999, but remained a global advocate for peace and social justice. (Click here for full article)
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A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.
After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.
Any man that tries to rob me of my dignity will lose.
Difficulties break some men but make others. No axe is sharp enough to cut the soul of a sinner who keeps on trying, one armed with the hope that he will rise even in the end.
For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.
I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.
I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.
If I had my time over I would do the same again. So would any man who dares call himself a man.
If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.
It always seems impossible until it's done.
Lead from the back- and let others believe they are in front.
No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.
No one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens but its lowest ones.
One cannot be prepared for something while secretly believing it will not happen.
One of the things I learned when I was negotiating was that until I changed myself, I could not change others.
Our march to freedom is irreversible. We must not allow fear to stand in our way.
Out of the experience of an extraordinary human disaster that lasted too long, must be born a society of which all humanity will be proud.
Part of being optimistic is keeping one's head pointed toward the sun, one's feet moving forward.
Real leaders must be ready to sacrifice all for the freedom of their people.
The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.
We must ensure that color, race and gender become only a God-given gift to each one of us and not an indelible mark or attribute that accords a special status to any.
We must therefore act together as a united people, for national reconciliation, for nation building, for the birth of a new world. Let there be justice for all. Let there be peace for all.
When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw.
You will achieve more in this world through acts of mercy than you will through acts of retribution.
I am not an optimist, but a great believer of hope.
We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.
Categories: Nelson Mandela
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