Nelson Mandela

It is not where you start but how high you aim that matters for success.

I am not an optimist, but a great believer of hope.

Your playing small does not serve the world. Who are you not to be great?

Let freedom reign. The sun never set on so glorious a human achievement.

Tread softly, Breathe peacefully, Laugh hysterically.

I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.

That which we do not believe, we cannot adequately say; even though we may repeat the words ever so often.

It is a lesson which all history teaches wise men, to put trust in ideas, and not in circumstances.

Our chief want in life is somebody who shall make us do what we can.

Men profess to be lovers of music, but for the most part they give no evidence in their opinions and lives that they have heard it.

The virtue in most request is conformity.

The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked what I thought, and attended to my answer.

Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.

To be idle and to be poor have always been reproaches, and therefore every man endeavors with his utmost care to hide his poverty from others, and his idleness from himself.

You must not blame me if I do talk to the clouds.

When you adopt the standards and the values of someone else… you surrender your own integrity. You become, to the extent of your surrender, less of a human being.

All my life affection has been showered upon me, and every forward step I have made has been taken in spite of it.

A lot of power and bravery is practice. And some of that is taking the risk to try and be at the table. And then when you’re at the table, taking that first risk to open your mouth and risk being rejected.

Here there is no hope, and consequently no duty, no work, nothing to be gained by praying, nothing to be lost by doing what you like. Hell, in short, is a place where you have nothing to do but amuse yourself.

Just write every day of your life. Read intensely. Then see what happens. Most of my friends who are put on that diet have very pleasant careers.

Every man has his own courage, and is betrayed because he seeks in himself the courage of other persons.