resilience Quotes

In my country we go to prison first and then become President.

It always seems impossible until it's done.

There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.

After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.

I was first imprisoned in Pretoria, and then, thereafter, I was taken to Robben Island. I stayed there for a couple of weeks. I was taken back to Pretoria when I was charged in the Rivonia trial, when I was then sent to Robben Island for life.

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.

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?

The titanic effort that has brought liberation to South Africa, and ensured the total liberation of Africa, constitutes an act of redemption for the black people of the world.

I was not a messiah, but an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary circumstances.

Any man or institution that tries to rob me of my dignity will lose.