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Quote by Nelson Mandela

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Nelson Mandela By Himself: The Authorised Book of Quotations

This book compiles a selection of quotes from Nelson Mandela, providing a glimpse into his wisdom and the principles that guided his life and leadership. more

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Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela, the former President of South Africa, was born on July 18, 1918, and passed away on December 5, 2013. He was a leader in the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa and was imprisoned for 27 years for his opposition to apartheid policies. Mandela dedicated himself to promoting democracy and equality in South Africa, becoming a symbol of anti-racism and peace worldwide. more

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“And it is in this darkness, when there is nothing left in us that can please or comfort our own minds, when we seem to be useless and worthy of all contempt, when we seem to have failed, when we seem to be destroyed and devoured, it is then that the deep and secret selfishness that is too close to us for us to identify is stripped away from our souls. It is in this darkness that we find liberty. It is in this abandonment that we are made strong. This is the night which empties us and makes us pure.”

“If nothing that can be seen can either be God or represent Him to us as He is, then to find God we must pass beyond everything that can be seen and enter into darkness. Since nothing that can be heard is God, to find Him we must enter into silence. Since God cannot be imagined, anything our imagination tells us about Him is ultimately a lie and therefore we cannot know Him as He really is unless we pass beyond everything that can be imagined and enter into an obscurity without images and without the likeness of any created thing.”

“The friends of Job appear on the scene as advisers and "consolers," offering Job the fruits of their moral scientia. But when Job insists that his sufferings have no explanation and that he cannot discover the reason for them through conventional ethical concepts, his friends turn into accusers, and curse Job as a sinner. Thus, instead of consolers, they become torturers by virtue of their very morality, and in so doing, while claiming to be advocates of God, they act as instruments of the devil.”