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Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela Quotes

Former President of South Africa

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Famous Nelson Mandela Quotes

“It is the dictate of history to bring to the fore the kind of leaders who seize the moment, who cohere the wishes and aspirations of the oppressed. Such was Steve Biko, a fitting product of his time; a proud representative of the re-awakening of a people.”

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Book:Nelson Mandela By Himself: The Authorised Book of Quotations
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“At the meeting I argued that the state had given us no alternative to violence. I said it was wrong and immoral to subject our people to armed attacks by the state without offering them some kind of alternative. I mentioned again that people on their own had taken up arms. Violence would begin whether we initiated it or not. Would it not be better to guide this violence ourselves, according to principles where we saved lives by attacking symbols of oppression, and not people? If we did not take the lead now, I said, we would soon be latecomers and followers to a movement we did not control.”

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Author:Nelson Mandela
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“The very right to be human is denied every day to hundreds of millions of people as a result of poverty, the unavailability of basic necessities such as food, jobs, water and shelter, education, health care and a healthy environment.”

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Book:Nelson Mandela: from freedom to the future : tributes and speeches
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“Racism is a blight on the human conscience. The idea that any people can be inferior to another, to the point where those who consider themselves superior define and treat the rest as subhuman, denies the humanity even of those who elevate themselves to the status of gods.”

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Book:Nelson Mandela By Himself: The Authorised Book of Quotations
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“The USA is a threat to world peace. Who are they to pretend that they are the policemen of the world, the ones that should decide for the people of Iraq what should be done with their government and their leadership. All that [the USA] wants is Iraqi oil. [Blair is] simply the foreign minister of the United States. He is no longer prime minister of Britain.”

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Author:Nelson Mandela
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“We cannot blame other people for our troubles. We are not victims of the influx of foreign people into South Africa. We must remember that it was mainly due to the aggressive and hostile policies of the apartheid regime that the economic development of our neighbours was undermined.”

PeopleRememberTroubleEconomicPolicyDevelopmentVictimBlameSouthDuesAggressiveRegimesSouth AfricaHostileNeighbourApartheidEconomic Development
Book:Nelson Mandela By Himself: The Authorised Book of Quotations
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