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    Notes to the Future: Words of Wisdom
    Notes to the Future: Words of Wisdom
    Notes to the Future: Words of Wisdom
    Ebook141 pages1 hour

    Notes to the Future: Words of Wisdom

    By Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu

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    About this ebook

    From the heart and soul of visionary Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela, a collection of his most uplifting, time-honored quotes that have inspired our world and offer a path for peace.

    “The book that you hold in your hands is nothing short of a miracle.” —Desmond Tutu, from the Introduction

    Notes to the Future is the definitive book of quotations from one of the great leaders of our time. This collection—gathered from privileged access to Mandela’s vast personal archive of private papers, speeches, correspondence, and audio recordings—features more than three hundred quotations spanning more than sixty years and includes his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech.

    These inspirational quotations, organized into four sections—Struggle, Victory, Wisdom, and Future—are both universal and deeply personal. We see Mandela’s sense of humor, his loneliness and despair, his thoughts on fatherhood, and the reluctant leader who had no choice but to become the man history demanded.

    “A good pen can also remind us of the happiest moments in our lives, bring noble ideas into our dens, our blood and our souls. It can turn tragedy into hope and victory” (from a letter to Zindzi Mandela, written on Robben Island, February 10, 1980).
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAtria Books
    Release dateNov 20, 2012
    ISBN9781451675412
    Notes to the Future: Words of Wisdom
    Author

    Nelson Mandela

    Nelson Mandela was born in Transkei, South Africa on 18 July 1918. He joined the African National Congress in 1944 and was engaged in resistance against the ruling National Party's apartheid policies for many years before being arrested in August 1962. Mandela was incarcerated for over twenty-seven years, during which his reputation as a potent symbol of resistance to the antiapartheid movement grew steadily. Released from prison in 1990, Mandela won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 and was inaugurated as the first democratically elected president of South Africa in 1994. He is the author of the international bestseller Long Walk to Freedom. He passed away on 5 December 2013, aged ninety-five.

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    • 4/5
      Quotations from Nelson Mandela and his Nobel Peace prize acceptance speech from 1993. Aimed at inspiration and understanding, the book is an exceptionally quick read with 3-4 quotes per left page and 1-3 quotes per right page. Not bad, but just a lot of quotes, still worth the read through for the inspiration.

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    Notes to the Future - Nelson Mandela

    Part One

    STRUGGLE

    You can see that 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 mountain tops of our desires.

    Quoting Jawaharlal Nehru, from a presidential address to the ANC Transvaal Congress, also known as the No Easy Walk to Freedom speech, Transvaal, South Africa, September 21, 1953

    On Whose Shoulders We Stand

    We should never forget those on whose shoulders we stand and those who paid the supreme price for freedom.

    Upon receiving the Freedom of Howick, Howick, South Africa, December 12, 1996

    To the extent that I have been able to achieve anything, I know that this is because I am the product of the people of South Africa.

    Final sitting of the first democratically elected Parliament, Cape Town, South Africa, March 26, 1999

    We come from a people who, because they would not accept to be treated as subhuman, redeemed the dignity of all humanity everywhere.

    From an address to the Parliament of Canada, Ottawa, Canada, June 18, 1990

    If I Had My Time Over

    I have often wondered whether a person is justified in neglecting his own family to fight for opportunities for others.

    From an unpublished autobiographical manuscript, written on Robben Island, 1975

    If I had my time over I would do the same again. So would any man who dares call himself a man.

    From an address to the court on charges ofinciting workers to strike and leaving the country illegally, Old Synagogue, Pretoria, South Africa, November 7, 1962

    There are many things that disturb you when children grow without you.

    From the documentary Mandela: The Living Legend, 2003

    One of the dreams I constantly had in prison was me going home and getting out in the middle of the city and having to walk from town to Soweto and reaching home, finding that the house was open, that there was nobody at home and being concerned as to what had happened to Winnie and the children.

    From a BBC (UK) documentary, 1996

    I myself did not realize the full implications of the life I had chosen.

    From an interview, circa 1993

    What I Stood For

    I was made, by the law, a criminal, not because of what I had done, but because of what I stood for, because of what I thought, because of my conscience.

    From an address to the court on charges of inciting workers to strike and leaving the country illegally, Old Synagogue, Pretoria, South Africa, November 7, 1962

    I can only say that I felt morally obliged to do what I did.

    Speech from the dock, Rivonia Trial, Palace of Justice, Pretoria, South Africa, April 20, 1964

    It would have been immoral to keep quiet while a racist tyranny sought to reduce an entire people into a status worse than that of the beasts of the

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