UPSC Express

​Nelson Mandela

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.

It always seems impossible until it’s done.

For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.

A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.

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

The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.

If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.

We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.

Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same

Money won’t create success, the freedom to make it will.

There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.

When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw.

In my country we go to prison first and then become President.

Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another.

I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.

Only free men can negotiate; prisoners cannot enter into contracts. Your freedom and mine cannot be separated.

If there are dreams about a beautiful South Africa, there are also roads that lead to their goal. Two of these roads could be named Goodness and Forgiveness.

I detest racialism, because I regard it as a barbaric thing, whether it comes from a black man or a white man.

There is no such thing as part freedom.

A good head and good heart are always a formidable combination. But when you add to that a literate tongue or pen, then you have something very special.

Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation.

Let freedom reign. The sun never set on so glorious a human achievement.

Courageous people do not fear forgiving, for the sake of peace.

I dream of an Africa which is in peace with itself.

When the water starts boiling it is foolish to turn off the heat.

Does anybody really think that they didn’t get what they had because they didn’t have the talent or the strength or the endurance or the commitment?

I cannot conceive of Israel withdrawing if Arab states do not recognize Israel, within secure borders.

Nonviolence is a good policy when the conditions permit.