

“What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.”
Traced to Speech at the 90th birthday celebration of Walter Sisulu (2002).
More from Nelson Mandela
“Only free men can negotiate; prisoners cannot enter into contracts. Your freedom and mine cannot be separated.”
Nelson Mandela
Statement refusing conditional release · 1985
verified“Difficulties break some men but make others. No axe is sharp enough to cut the soul of a sinner who keeps on trying, one armed with the hope that he will rise even in the end.”
Nelson Mandela
Letter to Winnie Mandela, written on Robben Island · 1975
verified“Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice.”
Nelson Mandela
Speech for the 'Make Poverty History' campaign · 2005
verified“If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.”
Nelson Mandela
Long Walk to Freedom · 1995
verified“A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.”
Nelson Mandela
Long Walk to Freedom · 1995
verified“Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mineworker can become the head of the mine, that a child of farmworkers can become the president of a great nation.”
Nelson Mandela
Long Walk to Freedom · 1995
verifiedMore Life quotes
“It all comes to this: the simplest way to be happy is to do good.”
Helen Keller
The Simplest Way to be Happy · 1933
verified“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”
Helen Keller
The Open Door · 1957
verified“There never has been security. No man has ever known what he would meet around the next corner; if life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
Tomorrow Is Now · 1963
verified“One of the blessings of age is to learn not to part on a note of sharpness, to treasure the moments spent with those we love, and to make them whenever possible good to remember, for time is short.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
My Day · 1943
verified“Happiness is not a goal, it is a by-product. Paradoxically, the one sure way not to be happy is deliberately to map out a way of life in which one would please oneself completely and exclusively.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
You Learn by Living · 1960
verified“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
You Learn by Living · 1960
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