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A political movement must keep in touch with reality and the prevailing conditions. Long speeches, the shaking of fists, the banging of tables, and strongly worded resolutions out of touch with the objective conditions do not bring about mass action and can do a great deal of harm to the organization and the struggle we serve.

Nelson Mandela

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Nelson Mandela
Age: 95 †
Born: 1918
Born: July 18
Died: 2013
Died: December 5
Autobiographer
Former President Of South Africa
Lawyer
Political Activist
Political Prisoner
Politician
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela
Mandela
Prisoner 46664
Madiba
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Movement
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Great

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I never think of the time I have lost. I just carry out a programme because it's there. It's mapped out for me.
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If the United States of America or Britain is having elections, they don't ask for observers from Africa or from Asia. But when we have elections, they want observers.
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Safety and security don't just happen, they are the result of collective consensus and public investment. We owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear.
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Our freedom is also incomplete, dear compatriots, as long as we are denied our security by criminals who prey on our communities, who rob our businesses and undermine our economy, who ply their destructive trade in drugs in our schools, and who do violence against our women and children.
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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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We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.
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I found solitary confinement the most forbidding aspect of prison life. There is no end and no beginning there is only one's mind, which can begin to play tricks. Was that a dream or did it really happen? One begins to question everything.
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I do not deny that I planned sabotage. I did not plan it in a spirit of recklessness nor because I have any love of violence. I planned it as a result of a calm and sober assessment of the political situation that had arisen after many years of tyranny, exploitation and oppression of my people by the whites.
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Resentment is like a glass of poison that a man drinks then he sits down and waits for his enemy to die.
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Freedom alone is not enough without light to read at night, without time or access to water to irrigate your farm, without the ability to catch fish to feed your family.
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I want to sleep for eternity with a broad smile on my face. I want those who remain behind to say this man has done his duty.
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Nothing is black or white.
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A movement without vision would be a movement without moral foundation.
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It is not the kings and generals that make history, but the masses of the people.
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To truly lead one's people, one must also truly know them.
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In countries where innocent people are dying, the leaders are following their blood rather than their brains.
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Negotiation and discussion are the greatest weapons we have for promoting peace and development.
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I enjoyed the discipline and solitariness of long-distance running, which allowed me to escape from the hurly-burly of school life.
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AIDS is our number one enemy. This enemy can be defeated. While the research for a cure continues, four principles -- love, support, acceptance and care for those affected -- can make us winners.
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A new society cannot be created by reproducing the repugnant past, however refined or enticingly repackaged.
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