Inspiring quotes from Mandela

Freedom fighter, statesman, moral
compass and South Africa’s symbol of
the struggle against racial oppression.
That was Nelson Mandela, who emerged
from prison after 27 years to lead his
country out of decades of apartheid.
Here are some of his inspiring quotes:
“No one is born hating another person
because of the
colour of his skin, or his background,
or his religion.
People must learn to hate, and if they
can learn to hate,
they can be taught to love, for love
comes more naturally
to the human heart than its opposite.
“There is no easy walk to freedom
anywhere, and
many of us will have to pass through
the valley of the
shadow of death again and again
before we reach the
mountaintop of our desires.
“Our struggle for freedom and justice
was a collective effort…it
is in your hands to create a better
world for all who live in it.
“Out of the experience of an
extraordinary human disaster that
lasted too long, must be born a
society of which all humanity will be
proud.
“We understand it still that there is no
easy road to freedom. We know it well
that none of us acting alone can
acheive success. We must therefore
act together as a united people, for
national reconciliation, for nation
building, for the birth of a new world.
“To deny people their human rights is
to challenge their
very humanity. To impose on them a
wretched life of hunger and
deprivation is to dehumanize them.
But such has been the terrible fate of
all black persons in our country under
the system of apartheid.
“People may say to spend 27 years in
prison you have wasted your life. But
the greatest thing for a politician is
whether the ideas to which you’ve
committed your life are still alive,
whether these ideas are likely to
triumph in the end, and everything that
happened showed that we have not
sacrificed in vain.
“I came to accept that I have no right
whatsoever to
judge others in terms of my own
customs, however much I may be
proud of such customs.
“Only armchair politicians are immune
from committing
mistakes.Errors are inherent in
political action.
“Until I was jailed I never fully
appreciated the capacity of memory,
the endless string of information the
head can carry.”