Nelson Mandela on Deep Work Quotes

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

"I had no epiphany, no singular revelation... but a steady accumulation of a thousand slights."

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."

"Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies."

"I have taken a moment here to rest... but I can only rest for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities."

"We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right."

"A leader... is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead."

"I could not prepare South Africa for the future without first preparing myself."

"I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society... it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."

"The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."

"One of the things I learned when I was negotiating was that until I changed myself, I could not change others."

"Honesty, sincerity, simplicity, humility, pure generosity, absence of vanity, readiness to serve others... are the foundation of one's spiritual life."

"I was not a messiah, but an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary circumstances."

"I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it."

"The habit of attending to every detail is the mark of a great leader."

"Difficulties break some men but make others. No axe is sharp enough to cut the soul of a sinner who keeps on trying."

"I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying."

"In judging our progress as individuals, we tend to focus on external factors... but internal factors may be even more crucial."

"I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul."

"After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb."

"There is no passion to be found playing small—in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living."

"I detest racialism, because I regard it as a barbaric thing, whether it comes from a black man or a white man."

"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... People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love."

"Only free men can negotiate; prisoners cannot enter into contracts."

"I have never cared very much for personal prizes. A person does not become a freedom fighter in the hope of winning awards."

"It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another."

"May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears."

"I like friends who have independent minds because they tend to make you see problems from all angles."

"There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered."

"Vision without action is just a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world."

"The cell is an ideal place to learn to know yourself, to search realistically and regularly the process of your own mind and feelings."

"I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination."