Nelson Mandela Quotes

I have always striven to raise the voice of hope for a world where hate gives way to respect and oppression to liberation.

The victory of democracy in South Africa is the common achievement of all humanity.

Trust me that as I ignore all law to help the slave, so will I ignore it all to protect an enslaved woman.

Emancipation - what is meant by it? Simply that the slaves shall cease to be held as property and shall henceforth be held and treated as human beings. Simply, that we should take our feet from off their necks.

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

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

We have triumphed in the effort to implant hope in the breasts of the millions of our people. We enter into a covenant that we shall build the society in which all South Africans, both black and white, will be able to walk tall, without any fear in their hearts, assured of their inalienable right to human dignity — a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world.

We say no to the peace that keeps us on our knees, no to the peace that keeps us in chains, no to the false peace that denies the values and contributions of our peoples.

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

The name of peace is sweet and the thing itself good, but between peace and slavery there is the greatest difference.

We do not want the peace of slaves nor the peace of the grave.

Nobody's free until everybody's free.

There is not a right too long denied to which we do not aspire in order to achieve; there is not a wrong too long endured that we are not determined to abolish.

There's not an American in this country free until every one of us is free.

Peace and justice are two sides of the same coin.

Life is not a matter of place, things or comfort; rather, it concerns the basic human rights of family, country, justice and human dignity.

I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights.

We will not fail your expectations of us as a new nation dedicated to peace, democracy, and freedom.

Peace does not mean just to stop wars, but also to stop oppression and injustice.

It takes no compromising to give people their rights. It takes no money to respect the individual. It takes no survey to remove repressions.

To this wonderful page in our country's history another more glorious still will be added, and the slave shall show at last to his free brothers a sharpened sword forged from the links of his fetters.

Freedom is not enough.

In order to establish peace, you must have fair justice for everyone.

Until we are all free, we are none of us free.

To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.