Lead from the front - but don t leave your base behind.

MY greatest regret in life is that I never became the heavyweight boxing champion ofthe world.

One cannot be prepared for something while secretly believing it will not happen.

Poetry cannot block a bullet or still a sjambok, but it can bear witness to brutality-thereby cultivating a flower in a graveyard.

With freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk has not ended yet.

I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being optimistic is keeping one's head pointed toward the sun, one's feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death.

It is not our diversity which divides us; it is not our ethnicity, or religion or culture that divides us. Since we have achieved our freedom, there can only be one division amongst us: between those who cherish democracy and those who do not.