Quotes to inspire and reflect

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.

Man’s goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished.

I wondered--not for the first time--whether one was ever justified in neglecting the welfare of one's own family in order to fight for the welfare of others. Can there be anything more important than looking after one's aging mother? Is politics merely a pretext for shirking one's responsibilities, an excuse for not being able to provide in the way one wanted?

One of the things I learned when I was negotiating was that until I changed myself, I could not change others.

I always knew that deep down in every human heart, there was mercy and generosity.

People respond in accordance to how you relate to them. If you approach them on the basis of violence, that's how they'll react. But if you say, 'We want peace, we want stability,' we can then do a lot of things that will contribute towards the progress of our society.

I learned that to humiliate another person is to make him suffer an unnecessarily cruel fate. Even as a boy, I defeated my opponents without dishonoring them.

Appearances matter — and remember to smile.

It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.

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.

No country can really develop unless its citizens are educated.

It was ANC policy to try to educate all people, even our enemies: we believed that all men, even prison service warders, were capable of change, and we did our utmost to try to sway them.

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

Like all Xhosa children, I acquired knowledge mainly through observation. We were meant to learn through imitation and emulation, not through questions. When I first visited the homes of whites, I was often dumbfounded by the number and nature of questions that children asked of their parents—and their parents’ unfailing willingness to answer them. In my household, questions were considered a nuisance; adults imparted information as they considered necessary.

Without education, your children can never really meet the challenges they will face. So it's very important to give children education and explain that they should play a role for their country.

Running taught me valuable lessons. In cross-country competition, training counted more than intrinsic ability, and I could compensate for a lack of natural aptitude with diligence and discipline. I applied this in everything I did.

The human body has an enormous capacity for adjusting to trying circumstances. I have found that one can bear the unbearable if one can keep one's spirit strong, even when one's body is being tested. Strong convictions are the secret of surviving deprivation. Your spirit can be full even when your stomach is empty.

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

Let your courage rise with danger.

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?

The brave man is not the one who has no fears, he is the one who triumphs over his fears.

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

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.

Courage is not the absence of fear — it’s inspiring others to move beyond it.

I was a young man who attempted to make up for his ignorance with militancy.

When you are young and strong...you can stay alive on your hatred.

Resentment is a method of self-harm.

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 extinguished.

You will achieve more in this world through acts of mercy than you will through acts of retribution.

Quotes on the Long Walk to Freedom

I'm attracted to soccer's capacity for beauty. When well played, the game is a dance with a ball.

In football everything is complicated by the presence of the opposite team.

International football is the continuation of war by other means.

In his life, a man can change wives, political parties or religions but he cannot change his favorite soccer team.

Remember, Lady Godiva put all she had on a horse and she lost her shirt!

Rugby is a game for big buggers. If you’re not a big bugger, you get hurt. I wasn’t a big bugger but I was a fast bugger and therefore I avoided the big buggers.

No hour of life is wasted that is spent in the saddle.

My horse was in the lead, coming down the home stretch, but the caddie fell off.

If you could call the thing a horse. If it hadn't shown a flash of speed in the straight, it would have got mixed up with the next race.

Take care to sell your horse before he dies. The art of life is passing losses on.

They say Princes learn no art truly, but the art of horsemanship. The reason is, the brave beast is no flatterer. He will throw a prince as soon as his groom.

The horse I bet on was so slow, the jockey kept a diary of the trip.

If an ass goes travelling, he'll not come back a horse.

Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people.

He was so learned that he could name a horse in nine languages; so ignorant that he bought a cow to ride on.

If a horse is no good, trade him for a dog, then shoot the dog.

I would horsewhip you if I had a horse.

Bookmakers are pickpockets who allow you to use your own hands.