Happy Birthday, Nelson Mandela!

Nelson Mandela was the President of South Africa (the first one democratically elected) from 1994-1999, and is well-known as the anti-apartheid activist who spent 27 years in prison. He was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts, and after I dug up some of his best quotes, I realized why he is so respected. In honor of his birthday, here are 10 quotes that I found especially powerful.

After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.

It always seems impossible until its done.

Money won’t create success, the freedom to make it will.

Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another.

There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.

There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.

We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.