A fundamental concern for others in our individual and community lives would go a long way in making the world the better place we so passionately dreamt of.

Only armchair politicians are immune from committing mistakes. Errors are inherent in political action.

The first election in which all South Africans took part was in April, 1994. There were long queues [lines] of employers and employees, black and white. In the sense of Africans, Coloreds and Indians - when I talk about blacks, I mean those three. Blacks and whites mingled to vote without any hitches. Many people would have expected a great deal of tension, clashes and violence, but it did not occur.

What we did was to try and exploit that spirit [the idea of giving], which was there even before I approached individual South Africans [to give to the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund]. I think we must start from that angle.

I realized that they could take everything from me except my mind and my heart. They could not take those things. Those things I still had control over. And I decided not to give them away.

There is little favorable to be said about poverty, but it was often an incubator of true friendship.

Our task is not to liberate the oppressed, but to liberate the oppressors