Long Walk To Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela

‘the oppressor defines the nature of the struggle.’

Democracy meant all men were to be heard, and a decision was taken together as a people.

We do not make the same distinctions among relations practised by whites. We have no half-brothers or half-sisters. My mother’s sister is my mother; my uncle’s son is my brother; my brother’s child is my son, my daughter.

‘I realized that they could take everything from me except my mind and my heart. They could not take those things. Those things I still had control over. And I decided not to give them away.’

‘To make peace with an enemy one must work with that enemy, and that enemy becomes one’s partner.’

‘Yes, I am your President. And if you work very hard in school and you learn a lot and you are nice to everybody, you too could grow up to be President of South Africa.’

reconciling with the people who had marshaled the horrible forces of apartheid, and sharing power with them.

I learned that to humiliate another person is to make him suffer an unnecessarily cruel fate. Even as a boy, I defeated my opponents without dishonouring them.

In letting it go, Mandela kept his mind and his heart.