We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.

Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.

Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.

We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.

Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.

I came across few whites as a boy at Qunu. The local magistrate, of course, was white, as was the nearest shopkeeper. Occasionally, white travelers or policemen passed through our area. These whites appeared as grand as gods to me, and I was aware that they were to be treated with a mixture of fear and respect.

There are many people in South Africa who are rich and who can share those riches with those not so fortunate who have not been able to conquer poverty.

If you are poor, you are not likely to live long.

From the beginning, Mandela and Tambo was besieged with clients. We were not the only African lawyers in South Africa, but we were the only firm of African lawyers. For Africans, we were the firm of first choice and last resort.

I have been influenced in my thinking by both west and east.

You know, you can only lead them from behind.

Especially for those of us who lived in single cells, you had the time to sit down and think, and we discovered that sitting down just to think is one of the best ways of keeping yourself fresh and able, to be able to address the problems facing you, and you had the opportunity, also, of examining your past.

There are so many men and women who hold no distinctive position but whose contribution towards the development of society has been enormous.

Intervention only works when the people concerned seem to be keen for peace.

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.

Let each know that for each the body, the mind and the soul have been forced to fulfill themselves. 

We can't afford to be killing one another.

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.

After one has been in prison, it is the small things that one appreciates: being able to take a walk whenever one wants, going into a shop and buying a newspaper, speaking or choosing to remain silent. The simple act of being able to control one's person.

If there are dreams about a beautiful South Africa, there are also roads that lead to their goal. Two of these roads could be named Goodness and Forgiveness.

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?

It is wise to persuade people to do things and make them think it was their own idea.

I dream of an Africa which is in peace with itself.

I stand here before you not as a prophet, but as a humble servant of you, the people.

Forget the past.

When the water starts boiling it is foolish to turn off the heat.

Only free men can negotiate. A prisoner cannot enter into contracts.

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

If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.