Nelson Mandela Quotes

My friends, history, history calls us to this time and to this place. A solemn choice rests with us - where do we go from here? Do we move slowly and incrementally? Or do we seize the challenge of our time and tackle the great issues of our day.

Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great, you can be that generation

Life is like a dogsled team. If you ain't the lead dog, the scenery never changes.

We, the generation that faces the next century, can add the solemn injunction 'If we don't do the impossible, we shall be faced with the unthinkable.'

People are needed to take up the challenge, strong people, who proclaim the truth, throw it in people's faces, and do what they can with their own two hands.

If you want to do things – to change things – you must run the risk of not succeeding.

My responsibility will be to unite all the women and men ready to take on the tremendous challenges which are waiting for us, and to act.

I have a vision of my country, and I cannot sit and watch things pass by.

You never, ever give up the chance to change things, ever, no matter how hard it is. If you're elected, and have got the opportunity to make a difference, you take it.

We have the opportunity and the responsibility to lead our country to a better and brighter future, and I cannot wait to roll up my sleeves and get back to work.

The largest question facing the human race is not when will you learn, but when will you act on what you've already learned.

Countrymen, the task ahead is great indeed, and heavy is the responsibility; and yet it is a noble and glorious challenge - a challenge which calls for the courage to dream, the courage to believe, the courage to dare, the courage to do, the courage to envision, the courage to fight, the courage to work, the courage to achieve - to achieve the highest excellencies and the fullest greatness of man. Dare we ask for more in life?

Remember that this greatness was won by men with courage, with knowledge of their duty, and with a sense of honor in action.

I am convinced that the world is not a mere bog in which men and women trample themselves and die. Something magnificent is taking place here amidst the cruelties and tragedies, and the supreme challenge to intelligence is that of making the noblest and best in our curious heritage prevail.

I feel like the torch has been passed to me. The question is what am I going to do with it.

The crisis that we inherit when we come to power will be the occasion for fundamental change and not the excuse for postponing it

Great men exist that there might be greater men.

You can't lead without taking risk.

We have laid the foundation for a better life. Things that were unimaginable a few years ago have become everyday reality. I belong to the generation of leaders for whom the achievement of democracy was the defining challenge.

I expect to be great. I expect to do what hasn't been done. I expect to provoke change.

Men of thought and men of action, clear the Way!

The great men of the earth are but the marking-stones on the road of humanity; they are the priests of its religion.

Leaders are all about what isn't and what-needs-to-be be.

I want to make change, but I've already made change. I will continue to make change. I'm not just running on a promise of change.