Nelson Mandela Quotes

The message I'm sending to myself - I can't change the world until I change myself first.

You learn how to do good work by being honest with yourself.

Before you can do something you must first be something.

People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.

You may not seem able to change some outer circumstances but you can start by changing your inner experience of life and yourself.

I prefer stories about people who are, in a sense, trying to find better versions of themselves.

Everybody talks about wanting to change things and help and fix, but ultimately all you can do is fix yourself. And that's a lot. Because if you can fix yourself, it has a ripple effect.

You change your life by changing your heart.

I see a deep connection between peace and change: peace always starts from within, for communities and people alike. The same is true of change: real change starts from within.

Being honest with myself is something I like. I am happy that I don't make excuses when I make a mistake. This is a good way to improve in the fastest way.

Try to be a better person everyday.

Getting to know myself changed everything. It's the best thing I've ever done.

Improving yourself is a lot more profitable than trying to improve others.

Good character improves every aspect of a person’s life.

To leave this world a better person, and for me to not be the only one who knows it.

In order to change the world, I guess a person would have to really get his head together first before he can say anything to the world, to change it.

You can change all things for the better when you change yourself for the better.

That is why success and fruitfulness depend as much upon focusing on the "who" you are as much as the "what" of the work you do. Invest in your character, and it will give you the returns that you are looking for by only investing in the work itself. You can't do the latter without the former.

It is easier to enrich ourselves with a thousand virtues, than to correct ourselves of a single fault.

Every man takes care that his neighbor shall not cheat him. But a day comes when he begins to care that he does not cheat his neighbor. Then all goes well. He has changed his market cart into a chariot of the sun.

If you want to be an agent of change, it starts with you and what you're made of.

The man who is deeply discontented with himself is probably growing fast into the full likeness of Christ.

you cannot hope for change in others, you can only work toward it in yourself. And that's hard work.

Am I getting nobler, better, more helpful, more humble, as I get older? Am I exhibiting the life that men take knowledge of as having been with Jesus, or am I getting more self-assertive, more deliberately determined to have my own way? It is a great thing to tell yourself the truth.

We often pray for purity, unselfishness, for the highest qualities of character, and forget that these things cannot be given, but must be earned.