A government which uses force to maintain its rule teaches the oppressed to use force to oppose it.

As long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest.

I hate race discrimination most intensely and in all its manifestations. I have fought it all during my life; I fight it now, and will do so until the end of my days.

Although I am a gregarious person, I love solitude even more.

That was one of the things that worried me – to be raised to the position of a semi-god – because then you are no longer a human being. I wanted to be known as Mandela, a man with weaknesses, some of which are fundamental, and a man who is committed, but never the less, sometimes he fails to live up to expectations.

We must also know that even before liberation in 1994 there [in South Africa] were people with resources who tried to share with those who were deprived.

It is important to not be hostile to what a greater part of society has embraced, whether as Christians, Hindus or Muslims. It is important to respect that because whether you believe or not in the existence of a superior being, humanity does believe in that.