Quote

Poetry cannot block a bullet or still a sjambok, but it can bear witness to brutality-thereby cultivating a flower in a graveyard.

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
Witness
Bear
Graveyard
Bears
Bullet
Flower
Cultivating
Poetry
Brutality
Cannot
Thereby
Stills
Bullets
Still
Block

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I made a mistake by being ejected from the presidency. Next time, I will choose a Cabinet which will allow me to be life President.
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One effect of sustained conflict is to narrow our vision of what is possible. Time and time again, conflicts are resolved through shifts that were unimaginable at the start.
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It is necessary to heal the wounds of the past If you are going to build your country and to have unity. I am working with people who fought me very bitterly before the elections. It was my responsibility as the man who is leading the majority party, my responsibility to heal the wounds of the past and to work with people who were my opponents.
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Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation. Let your greatness blossom. Of course the task will not be easy. But not to do this would be a crime against humanity, against which I ask all humanity now to rise up.
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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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The UN took a strong stand against apartheid and over the years, an international consensus was built, which helped to bring an end to this iniquitous system. But we know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians...
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Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place.
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As long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest.
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No one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens but its lowest ones.
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Our march to freedom is irreversible. We must not allow fear to stand in our way.
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The time is always right to do right
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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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I am convinced that floods of personal disaster can never drown a determined revolutionary nor can the cumulus of misery that accompanies tragedy suffocate him.
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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.
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Millions of people in the world's poorest countries remain enslaved by the chains of poverty. It is time to set them free.
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Religion is one of the most important forces in the world. Whether you are a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Jew, or a Hindu, religion is a great force, and it can help one have command of one's own morality, one's own behavior, and one's own attitude.
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It always seems impossible until its done.
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Political division, based on color, is entirely artificial and when it disappears, so will the domination of one color group by another.
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Few things make the life of a parent more rewarding and sweet as successful children.
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The majority of South Africans, black and white, recognize that apartheid has no future. It has to be ended by our own decisive mass action in order to build peace and security. The mass campaign of defiance and other actions of our organization and people can only culminate in the establishment of democracy.
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