The minute you got the Nobel Peace Prize, things that I said yesterday, with nobody paying too much attention, I say the same things after I got it - oh! It was quite crucial for people, and it helped our morale because apartheid did look invincible.

Brothers and sisters of Egypt, you have given the world the most precious gift: the belief that ultimately right will prevail.

Religion is like a knife: you can either use it to cut bread, or stick in someone's back.

Without forgiveness, there is no future.

A person is a person because he recognizes others as persons.

I am human because I belong, I participate, I share.

And one day, this thing happened to me: I coughed, and the blood just came gushing out of my mouth. ... I still can't believe that that happened to me, but I sat there, and I said to God, 'Well, if it means I'm going to die, that's OK.' I don't think I've ever felt that same kind of peace, the kind of serenity that I felt after acknowledging that maybe I was going to die of this TB.