We owe our children – the most vulnerable citizens in any society – a life free from violence and fear.
Nelson MandelaRead
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.
Interpretation
Freedom requires struggle and perseverance, often through difficult challenges.
Nelson Mandela emphasizes that the journey to freedom is not simple or straightforward. It often involves facing significant hardships and obstacles, represented here by 'the valley of the shadow of death.' However, enduring these trials is essential to ultimately achieve our highest aspirations, symbolized as reaching the 'mountaintop of our desires.'
In practice
In a graduation speech to inspire students about facing challenges.
We owe our children – the most vulnerable citizens in any society – a life free from violence and fear.
What freedom am I being offered while the organization of the people remains banned? Only free men can negotiate. A prisoner cannot enter into contracts.
The past is a rich resource on which we can draw in order to make decisions for the future, but it does not dictate our choices. We should look back at the past and select what is good, and leave behind what is bad.
We signal that good can be achieved amongst human beings who are prepared to trust, prepared to believe in the goodness of people.
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.
I dream of the realization of the unity of Africa, whereby its leaders combine in their efforts to solve the problems of this continent. I dream of our vast deserts, of our forests, of all our great wildernesses.
The United States and the freedom for which it stands, the freedom for which they died, must endure and prosper. Their lives remind us that freedom is not bought cheaply. It has a cost; it imposes a burden. And just as they whom we commemorate were willing to sacrifice, so too must we - in a less final, less heroic way - be willing to give of ourselves.
What can stop the determined heart and resolved will of man?
Fear will keep you alive in a war. Fear will keep you alive in business. There's nothing wrong with fear.
It is necessary to run risks, to follow certain paths and to abandon others. No one can make a choice without feeling fear.
I approve of anyone wearing what the establishment says you must not wear.
Fear will always knock on your door. Just don't invite it in for dinner. And for heaven's sake, don't offer it a bed for the night.
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