Our continent must be allowed to do its own things, charting its course and destiny.

True reconciliation does not consist in merely forgetting the past.

Freedom is meaningless if people cannot put food in their stomachs, if they can have no shelter, if illiteracy and disease continue to dog them.

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

It's not our weaknesses that frighten us. It's our strengths.

It is not beyond our power to create a world in which all children have access to a good education.

When I came to Johannesburg from the countryside, I knew nobody, but many strangers were very kind to me. I then was dragged into politics, and then, subsequently, I became a lawyer.