Remembering Nelson Mandela: Quotes, Poems & Passages

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Nelson Mandela once said, "It is never my custom to use words lightly. If 27 years in prison have done anything to us, it was to use the silence of solitude to make us understand how precious words are and how real speech is in its impact on the way people live and die."

Indeed, Nelson Mandela, the hero of millions, has uttered and written many words of wisdom and inspiration throughout his lifetime. Here are some of his best quotes:

"A good head and a good heart always a formidable combination"

"Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another."

"I learned that courage was the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear."

"For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects the freedom of others." 

"There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living."

"It always seems impossible until it's done."

"Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again."

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

"Man's goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished." 

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."

"There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the way in which you yourself have altered."

"If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner." 

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

"It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership."

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Besides composing his own words of wisdom, Mandela had some good taste in poems and passages. For example, while Nelson Mandela was imprisoned on Robben Island, he discovered the poem "Invictus" by William Ernest Henley and loved its message. As seen in the 2009 film of the same name, Mandela often recited the poem to other prisoners.

Below is Henley's "Invictus" poem in its entirety:

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance 
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishment the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

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When Mandela became the President of South Africa in 1994, he sent the captain of the South African rugby team a copy of the "Man in the Arena" passage – also quoted by Brené Brown in her TED talk about vulnerability – from President Theordore "Teddy" Roosevelt's "Citizenship in a Republic"speech. Mandela inspired the South African rugby team to defeat my other home country New Zealand in the 1995 Rugby World Cup final in an emotional sweep. As seen in the film Invictus, Mandela walked onto the field after the win wearing the South African team's green rugby jersey as 80,000 fans burst into chants of "Nel-son! Nel-son!"

Teddy Roosevelt's "Man in the Arena" passage goes as follows:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." 

Happy Birthday Old Possum!

Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.

– T.S. Eliot

Continuing the theme of famous author birthdays (It's just never ending this week...), September 26 is the birthday of American/British poet T. S. Eliot, who would have turned 125!

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Even though Tom Eliot is often hailed as "one of the twentieth century's major poets," he did not have to write a lot of poems to achieve this status. He believed that the only thing that mattered is that his poems were "perfect in their kind, so that each should be an event."

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The poem that made him famous is called The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. After that, he wrote his most famous work The Waste Land. The famous quotes "April is the cruellest month" and "I will show you fear in a handful of dust" come from this poem. He is also the poet behind The Hollow Men, Ash Wednesday and Four Quartets.


Later on in his life, he wrote the book Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats for his godchildren (Eliot did not have any children of his own). In this book, he used the name "Old Possum" because it was the nickname that his good friend, editor and fellow poet Ezra Pound gave him. Although you may not have heard of this book of cat poems, chances are you have heard of the musical in which people jump around the stage in cat costumes. Yep, the Broadway musical Cats was inspired by this book!

To conclude this post, here are some lovely quotes from Old Possum himself:

The very existence of libraries affords the best evidence that we may yet have hope for the future of man.

What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.