Nelson Mandela

In the 1940s, traveling for an African was a complicated process. All Africans over the age of sixteen were compelled to carry 'Native passes' issued by the Native Affairs Department and were required to show that pass to any white policeman, civil servant, or employer. Failure to do so could mean arrest, trial, a jail sentence or fine.

To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.

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?

Africans require, want, the franchise on the basis of one man one vote. They want political independence.

Communists have always played an active role in the fight by colonial countries for their freedom, because the short-term objects of Communism would always correspond with the long-term objects of freedom movements.

There is no such thing as part freedom.

Money won't create success, the freedom to make it will.

For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

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.

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.

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