Nelson Mandela in 18 striking quotes

July 18th is Nelson Mandela’s World Day. If he were alive, the former president of South Africa and the icon of the struggle against apartheid would turn 101. The day, set up by the United Nations is used to celebrate and honor the life and legacy of Mandela.

To celebrate the date, recall some remarkable quotations from Nelson Mandela. The quotations chosen here were exhibited in the exhibition “Mandela: from Prisoner to President”, organized by the Apartheid Museum and promoted in Brazil by the Brazil Africa Institute.

It always seems impossible until is done.”

Education is the most powerful gun the can be used to change the world.

“You can never find any passion if you conform with a life that is inferior to the one you capable to live”.

“I’ve learned that courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The courage man is not the one that doesn’t have fear but the one that conquest over it”

“If you talk to a man in a language he can understand, that goes in his head. If you talk to him in his own language that goes in his heart”.


“The biggest glory in life is not in never fall but to get up every time we do”.

“A good mind and a good heart are always a formidable combination. But when you can add this to a well-spoken language or a pen, then you have something really special”.

“After you climb a big mountain, you find out that is a lot of other mountains to climb. “

If they can learn how to hate, they can learn how to love, because love happens more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

“Human kindness is a flame that can be hidden but never extinct”.


“You will get more of this world through acts of compassion that acts of retaliation”.

The honor belongs to the ones that never give up the truth, even when things seem dark and austere”.


I dream that one day everyone will rise and realize that they were made to live as brothers.” 

I hate racism because I considered being a savage thing, coming for a black person or a white person.”

“Let the freedom rule. The sun never shines more glorious than when before a human conquer”.

“I am not a saint unless you think a saint is a sinner that keeps trying”.