There are few misfortunes in this world that you cannot turn into a personal trimuph if you have the iron will and the neccessary skill.

In judging our progress as individuals we tend to concentrate on external factors such as one's social position, influence and popularity, wealth and standard of education... But internal factors may be even more crucial in assessing one's development as a human being. Honesty, sincerity, simplicity, humility, pure generosity, absence of vanity, readiness to serve others - qualities which are within easy reach of every soul - are the foundation of one's spiritual life.

There is nothing to popularize a person. Only humility, which is the ability to remain in the background and to put others in the front light.

I like friends who have independent minds because they tend to make you see problems from all angles.

You mustn't compromise your principles, but you mustn't humiliate the opposition. No one is more dangerous than one who is humiliated.

As long as many of our people still live in utter poverty, as long as children still live under plastic covers, as long as many of our people are still without jobs, no South African should rest and wallow in the joy of freedom.

If you are negotiating you must do so in a spirit of reconciliation, not from the point of view of issuing ultimatums.