We are very moved by the recent New Yorker cover of a young Nelson Mandela during the time that he was on trial with over a hundred of his comrades. Says artist Kadir Nelson who painted the cover:

Being an artist is kind of like being an actor. So as I painted Nelson’s portrait, I felt empowered and proud like the man himself.

That’s how seeing the cover makes us feel. As do Mandela’s words:

It always seems impossible until it’s done.”

I like friends who have independent minds because they tend to make you see problems from all angles.

I learned that courage was not 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.

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

A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.

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.

Lead from the back — and let others believe they are in front.

Mandela Apollo

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2 replies on “7 Empowering Quotes from Nelson Mandela

  1. I had the pleasure & privilege of meeting Nelson Mandela in New York in 1992. What impressed the most was his extreme kindness. A man so brutalized, yet he had a twinkle in his eye and treated me like we had known each other for years. May his example live forever.

  2. You two-line description is very moving. And you are very lucky to have met him. Thank you!

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