All Quotes

433 quotes in total

“A bizarre sensation pervades a relationship of pretense . No truth seems true. A simple morning's greeting and response appear loaded with innuendo and fraught with implications. ... Each nicety becomes more sterile and each withdrawal more permanent. Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (1976), chapter 5.”

“Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage. As quoted in Diversity : Leaders Not Labels (2006) by Stedman Graham, p. 224”

“Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry , but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh , eat , worry , and die , it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends . Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now (1993) p. 12.”

“I am capable of what every other human is capable of. This is one of the great lessons of war and life . As quoted in Goal Mapping : How to Turn Your Dreams into Realities (2006) by Brian Mayne, p. 84”

“There are certain artists who belong to all the people, everywhere, all the time. The list of singers, musicians, and poets must include David the harpist from the Old Testament, Aesop the Storyteller, Omar Khayyam the Tent Maker, Shakespeare the Bard of Avon, Louis Armstrong the genius of New Orleans, Om Kalsoum the soul of Egypt, Frank Sinatra , Mahalia Jackson , Dizzy Gillespie , Ray Charles ... Celia Cruz ...All great artists draw from the same resource: the human heart, which tells us all that we are more alike than we are unalike. Maya Angelou Letter to My Daughter”

“Acontece tener un padre un hijo feo y sin gracia alguna, y el amor que le tiene le pone una venda en los ojos para que no vea sus faltas, antes las juzga por discreciones y lindezas y las cuenta a sus amigos por agudezas y donaires. A father may have a child who is ugly and lacking in all the graces, and the love he feels for him puts a blindfold over his eyes so that he does not see his defects but considers them signs of charm and intelligence and recounts them to his friends as if they were clever and witty.”

“En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme, no hace mucho tiempo que vivía un hidalgo de los de lanza en astillero, adarga antigua, rocín flaco y galgo corredor. In some village in La Mancha, whose name I do not care to recall, there dwelt not so long ago a gentleman of the type wont to keep an unused lance, an old shield, a skinny old horse, and a greyhound for racing. Ch. 1.”

“Y así, del poco dormir y del mucho leer, se le secó el cerebro, de manera que vino a perder el juicio. Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind. Ch. 1 (tr. Samuel Putnam).”

“Ethiopia has always held a special place in my own imagination and the prospect of visiting attracted me more strongly than a trip to France , England and America combined. I felt I would be visiting my own genesis, unearthing the roots of what made me an African. Meeting the emperor himself would be like shaking hands with history . On a 1961 conference held in Ethiopia, as quoted in Rivonia Unmasked (1965) by Strydom Lautz, p. 108; also in ‪Rolihlahla Dalibhunga Nelson Mandela : An Ecological Study‬ (2002), by J. C. Buthelezi, p. 172”

“In its proper meaning equality before the law means the right to participate in the making of the laws by which one is governed, a constitution which guarantees democratic rights to all sections of the population, the right to approach the court for protection or relief in the case of the violation of rights guaranteed in the constitution, and the right to take part in the administration of justice as judges, magistrates, attorneys”

“I hate race discrimination most intensely and in all its manifestations. I have fought it all during my life ; I fight it now , and will do so until the end of my days. Even although I now happen to be tried by one whose opinion I hold in high esteem, I detest most violently the set”

“I must deal immediately and at some length with the question of violence. Some of the things so far told to the Court are true and some are untrue. I do not, however, deny that I planned sabotage. I did not plan it in a spirit of recklessness, nor because I have any love of violence. I planned it as a result of a calm and sober assessment of the political situation that had arisen after many years of tyranny, exploitation, and oppression of my people by the Whites.”

“But the violence which we chose to adopt was not terrorism. We who formed Umkhonto were all members of the African National Congress , and had behind us the ANC tradition of non”

“During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony and with equal opportunities . It is an ideal which I hope to live for . But, my lord, if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

“The ANC has never at any period of its history advocated a revolutionary change in the economic structure of the country, nor has it, to the best of my recollection, ever condemned capitalist society.”