Great Throughts Treasury

"Know your enemy ? and learn about his favorite sport."

"Late in life, I am blooming like a flower because of the love and support she has given me."

"Leaders in all spheres who are living with HIV should be encouraged, not coerced, to lead by example and disclose their HIV status."

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

"Let us give publicity to H.I.V./AIDS and not hide it, because the only way to make it appear like a normal illness like TB, like cancer, is always to come out and say somebody has died because of H.I.V./AIDS, and people will stop regarding it as something extraordinary."

"Let it never be said by future generations that indifference, cynicism or selfishness made us fail to live up to the ideals of humanism which the Nobel Peace Prize encapsulates."

"Live life as though nobody is watching, and express yourself as though everyone is listening."

"Let the strivings of us all prove Martin Luther King Jr. to have been correct, when he said that humanity can no longer be tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war. Let the efforts of us all prove that he was not a mere dreamer when he spoke of the beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace being more precious than diamonds or silver or gold. Let a new age dawn."

"Learn to know yourself... to search realistically and regularly the processes of your own mind and feelings."

"Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is people who have made poverty and tolerated poverty, and it is people who will overcome it. And overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life."

"Many people in this country have paid the price before me and many will pay the price after me."

"My bosses always say that I have had twenty-seven years in prison to loaf. It is now time to do some catching up"

"Long speeches, the shaking of fists, the banging of tables and strongly worded resolutions out of touch with the objective conditions do not bring about mass action and can do a great deal of harm to the organization and the struggle we serve."

"Money will not create success, the freedom to make it will."

"My fellow South Africans ? the people of South Africa: This is indeed a joyous night. Although not yet final, we have received the provisional results of the election, and are delighted by the overwhelming support for the African National Congress. To all those in the African National Congress and the democratic movement who worked so hard these last few days and through these many decades, I thank you and honour you. To the people of South Africa and the world who are watching: this a joyous night for the human spirit. This is your victory too. You helped end apartheid, you stood with us through the transition."

"Neither Bush nor Tony Blair has provided any evidence that such weapons exist. But what we know is that Israel has weapons of mass destruction. Nobody talks about that. Why should there be one standard for one country, especially because it is black, and another one for another country, Israel, that is white... Many people say quietly, but they don't have the courage to stand up and say publicly, that when there were white secretary generals you didn't find this question of the United States and Britain going out of the United Nations. But now that you've had black secretary generals like Boutros Boutros Ghali, like Kofi Annan, they do not respect the United Nations. They have contempt for it. This is not my view, but that is what is being said by many people."

"My fellow South Africans, today we are entering a new era for our country and its people. Today we celebrate not the victory of a party, but a victory for all the people of South Africa."

"My son has died of AIDS."

"No power on earth can stop an oppressed people determined to win their freedom."

"Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another and suffer the indignity of being the skunk of the world. Let freedom reign! The sun shall never set on so glorious a human achievement! God bless Africa!"

"No country can really develop unless its citizens are educated. Any nation that is progressive is led by people who have had the privilege of studying."

"Nonviolence is a good policy when the conditions permit."

"No, no, no, everything is all right. I have regular medical check-ups and they say I won?t die this week."

"Nothing is black or white."

"Now is the time for celebration, for South Africans to join together to celebrate the birth of democracy. I raise a glass to you all for working so hard to achieve what can only be called a small miracle. Let our celebrations be in keeping with the mood set in the elections, peaceful, respectful and disciplined, showing we are a people ready to assume the responsibilities of government. I promise that I will do my best to be worthy of the faith and confidence you have placed in me and my organization, the African National Congress. Let us build the future together, and toast a better life for all South Africans."

"Nothing in prison is gratifying only one thing is to provide time for reflection."

"One of the things that made me long to be back in prison was that I had so little opportunity for reading, thinking and quiet reflection after my release. I intend, amongst other things, to give myself much more opportunity for such reading and reflection."

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

"Of course the task will not be easy. But not to do this would be a crime against humanity, against which I ask all humanity now to rise up."

"On my last day I want to know that those who remain behind will say: 'The man who lies here has done his duty for his country and his people'."

"Nothing like returning to a place unchanged."

"Once a person is determined to help themselves, there is nothing that can stop them."

"One day I will be the first black president of South Africa."

"One issue that deeply worried me in prison was the false image I unwittingly projected to the outside world; of being regarded as a saint."

"One of the most difficult things is not to change society - but to change yourself."

"One of the reasons I am so pleased to be in Israel is as a tribute to the enormous contribution of the Jewish community of South Africa [to South Africa]. I am so proud of them."

"Our demand is for a non-racial society... We are fighting for a society where people will cease thinking in terms of color... It's not a question of race; it's a question of ideas."

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We we're born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us: it's in everyone. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

"Ours has been a quest for a constitution freely adopted by the people of South Africa, reflecting their wishes and their aspirations. The struggle for democracy has never been a matter pursued by one race, class, religious community or gender among South Africans. In honoring those who fought to see this day arrive, we honor the best sons and daughters of all our people. We can count amongst them Africans, Coloreds, Whites, Indians, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Jews ? all of them united by a common vision of a better life for the people of this country."

"Our human compassion binds us the one to the other - not in pity or patronizingly, but as human beings who have learnt how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future."

"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."

"People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite... Man's goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never explained."

"Out of the experience of an extraordinary human disaster that lasted too long, must be born a society of which all humanity will be proud? The time for the healing of the wounds has come. The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come. The time to build is upon us."

"Our single most important challenge is therefore to help establish a social order in which the freedom of the individual will truly mean the freedom of the individual."

"Overcoming fear, personal scarifies for the cause of freedom of all, and ability to see good in your enemies ? No one is born hating another person because of the color of your skin, or his background, or his religion ? if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love."

"Peace is the greatest weapon for development that any person can have."

"Perhaps it was history that ordained that it be here, at the Cape of Good Hope that we should lay the foundation stone of our new nation. For it was here at this Cape, over three centuries ago, that there began the fateful convergence of the peoples of Africa, Europe and Asia on these shores."

"Prison point stillness in a world moving"

"Racism is a blight on the human conscience. The idea that any people can be inferior to another, to the point where those who consider themselves superior define and treat the rest as sub-human, denies the humanity even of those who elevate themselves to the status of gods."

"Real leaders must be ready to sacrifice all for the freedom of their people."