Quote collection
666 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"Educating all of our children must be one of our most urgent priorities. We all know that education, more than anything else, improves our chances of building better lives."
"Music is a great blessing. It has the power to elevate and liberate us. It sets people free to dream. It can unite us to sing with one voice. Such is the value of music."
"The curious beauty of African music is that it uplifts even as it tells a sad tale. You may be poor, you may have only a ramshackle house, you may have lost your job, but that song gives you hope."
"We can neither heal nor build if, on the one hand the rich in our society see the poor as hordes of irritants or if on the other hand the poor sit back, expecting charity. All of us must take responsibility for the upliftment of our conditions, prepared to give our best to the benefit of all"
"Running taught me valuable lessons. In cross-country competition, training counted more than intrinsic ability, and I could compensate for a lack of natural aptitude with diligence and discipline. I applied this in everything I did."
"The collapse of good conscience and the absence of accountability and public scrutiny have led to crimes against humanity and violations of international law."
"A new world will be won not by those who stand at a distance with their arms folded, but by those who are in the arena, whose garments are torn by storms and whose bodies are maimed in the course of the contest."
"Prison itself is a tremendous education in the need for patience and perseverance. It is above all a test of one's commitment."
"Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great, you can be that generation"
"Let us give practical recognition to the injustices of the past,by building a future based on equality&social justice"
"Honesty,sincer ity,simplicity, humility, pure generosity,abse nce of vanity,readines s to serve others -qualities which are within easy reach of every soul -are the foundation of one's spiritual life."
"When you are behind bars with no hope of release, you need to find strength wherever you can. Personally, I found strength in Michael Jackson."
"There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested."
"Does anybody really think that they didn't get what they had because they didn't have the talent or the strength or the endurance or the commitment?"
"Part of building a new nation means building a spirit of tolerance, love and respect amongst the people of this country."
"To the youth of today, I also have a wish to make: be the scriptwriters of your destiny and feature yourselves as stars that showed the way towards a brighter future."
"I discovered even before I went to jail that apartheid was not run by people who were monolithic in their approach. Some of them didn't even believe in apartheid."
"In my country we go to prison first and then become President."
"We raise our voices in holy gladness to celebrate the victory of the risen Christ over the terrible forces of death."
"We recall our terrible past so that we can deal with it, to forgive where forgiveness is necessary, without forgetting; to ensure that never again will such inhumanity tear us apart; and to move ourselves to eradicate a legacy that lurks dangerously as a threat to our democracy."