Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandelawas a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, politician, and philanthropist, who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black chief executive, and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election. His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid through tackling institutionalised racism and fostering racial reconciliation. Politically an African nationalist and democratic socialist, he served as President of the African National Congressparty from 1991 to 1997...
NationalitySouth African
ProfessionWorld Leader
Date of Birth18 July 1918
CityMvezo, South Africa
AIDS is our number one enemy. This enemy can be defeated. While the research for a cure continues, four principles -- love, support, acceptance and care for those affected -- can make us winners.
The day I am afraid to do, that is the day I am no longer fit to lead.
The New World Order that is in the making must focus on the creation of a world of democracy, peace and prosperity for all.
Peace is the greatest weapon for development that any person can have.
The Church was as concerned with this world as the next: I saw that virtually all of the achievements of Africans seemed to have come about through the missionary work of the Church.
The impression that you are a demigod worried me. I wanted to be like an ordinary human being with virtues and vices.
The past is a rich resource on which we can draw in order to make decisions for the future, but it does not dictate our choices. We should look back at the past and select what is good, and leave behind what is bad.
It is not our diversity which divides us; it is not our ethnicity, or religion or culture that divides us. Since we have achieved our freedom, there can only be one division amongst us: between those who cherish democracy and those who do not.
If you sit down and talk to a person, it's easy to convince him that apartheid can never save a country and will lead to the slaughtering of innocent people - including his own people.
Freedom is indivisible; the chains on any one of my people were the chains on all of them, the chains on all of my people were the chains on me.
It only seems impossible until it's done.
We raise our voices in holy gladness to celebrate the victory of the risen Christ over the terrible forces of death
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?
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.