I was first imprisoned in Pretoria, and then, thereafter, I was taken to Robben Island. I stayed there for a couple of weeks. I was taken back to Pretoria when I was charged in the Rivonia trial, when I was then sent to Robben Island for life.

Don't make friends who are comfortable to be with. Make friends who will force you to lever yourself up.  

Our duty is to encourage every one in his struggle to live up to his own highest idea, and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to the Truth.

The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.

To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.

Religion, any religion, no matter what sort of wonderful religion, never be universal. So now education is universal, so we have to sort of find ways and means through education system, from kindergarten up to university level, to make awareness these good things, the values, inner values.

Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered.

I became the Dalai Lama not on a voluntary basis.

When we tackle obstacles, we find hidden reserves of courage and resilience we did not know we had. And it is only when we are faced with failure do we realise that these resources were always there within us. We only need to find them and move on with our lives.

After 2014, we will support a unified Afghanistan as it takes responsibility for its own future.

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

The sky, horizon, rainbow, and mirage are all illusions. The universe is full of illusions.