Mandela Quotes

To label someone as selfless is symptomatic of having bought the preposterous claim that a human being can have great concern for other human beings and little concern for themselves, or that, when taken to extremes, a human being can have great concern for other human beings and absolutely no concern for themselves.

Sometimes it's important to dare to dream - small or big - like Mandela, Gandhi, Winfrey, Obama, Malala and Dr King. From Einstein to Hawking - the skies no limit. From Ali to the Williams sisters - through trials and talent find the champions within. Like my mother did to raise great kids. Like the one or many who run with this. Like the unsung heroes in every city and village. Like the kind of heart and selfless healers. Like every act of kindness you ever did and received. Like the human spirit beyond class, colour and creed. Like every soul who has raised our consciousness. From one to all - love IS all we have and need.

The pleasure or the benefit that the object of our deed derives from it is every now and then greater or even more important than the one we derive from the deed.

When you are young and strong...you can stay alive on your hatred"....but realized later "They can take everything from me except my mind and heart"Nelson Mandela from Long Walk to Freedom

The only thing I hate about good people is that they like making their being good people bad people’s problem.

No single bad person regards themselves as a bad person.

Females and boys are the only creatures that propose others for friendship. As for the rest of us, friendship sort of just happens.

Retaliation retards your excellence. Nelson Mandela would not have been named as a great man if not for his courage to forgive those who schemed and plotted it for him to spend those 10000 bitter days in prison.

We are, or rather our natural desire to evade pain and to attain pleasure is, the primary reason we do or say every single thing we do or say.

In many cases, it was the woman’s stomach—not her heart—that fell for her man.

Some of our friends are our friends only because we used to be friends.

Then there was Mr Mandela. Everybody knew about Mr Mandela and how he had forgiven those who had imprisoned him. They had taken away years and years of his life simply because he wanted justice. They had set him to work in a quarry and his eyes had been permanently damaged by the rock dust. But at last, when he had walked out of the prison on that breathless, luminous day, he had said nothing about revenge or even retribution. He had said that there were more important things to do than to complain about the past, and in time he had shown that he meant this by hundreds of acts of kindness towards those who had treated him so badly. That was the real African way, the tradition that was closest to the heart of Africa. We are all children of Africa, and none of us is better or more important than the other. This is what Africa could say to the world: it could remind it what it is to be human.

It is humanly impossible to be selfless. As a matter of fact, human beings are inherently selfish.

Whenever a journalist wrote an article about him that was critical in nature... he would invite them to a meal and at first they assumed they were in trouble for being critical of him. But they soon learned after arrival at his house for a meal that he merely wanted to engage with them to get an understanding of they criticism... Madiba didn't attempt to change their minds. He would have an informed opinion after having engaged with them, and even though he occasionally changed an opinion by offering correct information, they never parted feeling hostile.

When Mandela passed away, the long walk to freedom will be longer and harder. I wish with my tears that every parent tell about Mandela to their children, shall their children grow up firmly and with faith.

In some cases, it is the woman’s stomach—not her heart—that has left her man for another.

Every single good person is a good person for their own sake, not for the sake of humanity, not even for the sake of another human being.

*Prostitution* is a euphemism for rape incidents that the victim and the economy profits from.