We owe our children – the most vulnerable citizens in any society – a life free from violence and fear.
Nelson MandelaRead
Adversity cleanses the lethargies of man
Interpretation
What this quote means
Adversity helps individuals awaken from their stagnation and complacency.
This quote by Nelson Mandela suggests that facing challenges and hardships has a purifying effect on individuals, motivating them to overcome inertia and realize their potential. It implies that through adversity, people are encouraged to grow, innovate, and take action, moving beyond their comfort zones to achieve greater things.
Themes
AdversityGrowthChallengePotentialAction
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about resilience and personal growth.
More from Nelson Mandela
All quotes →What freedom am I being offered while the organization of the people remains banned? Only free men can negotiate. A prisoner cannot enter into contracts.
Nelson MandelaRead
The past is a rich resource on which we can draw in order to make decisions for the future, but it does not dictate our choices. We should look back at the past and select what is good, and leave behind what is bad.
Nelson MandelaRead
We signal that good can be achieved amongst human beings who are prepared to trust, prepared to believe in the goodness of people.
Nelson MandelaRead
After one has been in prison, it is the small things that one appreciates: being able to take a walk whenever one wants, going into a shop and buying a newspaper, speaking or choosing to remain silent. The simple act of being able to control one's person.
Nelson MandelaRead
I dream of the realization of the unity of Africa, whereby its leaders combine in their efforts to solve the problems of this continent. I dream of our vast deserts, of our forests, of all our great wildernesses.
Nelson MandelaRead
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I've learned that many of the worst things lead to the best things, that no great thing is achieved without a couple of bad, bad things on the way to them, and that the bad things that happen to you bring, in some cases, the good things.
Mike NicholsRead
Do not overlook tiny good actions, thinking they are of no benefit; even tiny drops of water in the end will fill a huge vessel. Do not overlook negative actions merely because they are small; however small a spark may be, it can burn down a haystack as big as a mountain.
Gautama BuddhaRead
You can’t buy that kind of empowerment. To just know that as far as you are aware, you have not got a price; that there is not an amount of money large enough to make you compromise even a tiny bit of principle that, as it turned out, would make no practical difference anyway. I’d advise everyone to do it, otherwise you’re going to end up mastered by money and that’s not a thing you want ruling your life.
Alan MooreRead
This fellow is wise enough to play the fool; And to do that well craves a kind of wit: He must observe their mood on whom he jests, The quality of persons, and the time, And, like the haggard, check at every feather That comes before his eye. This is a practise As full of labour as a wise man's art For folly that he wisely shows is fit; But wise men, folly-fall'n, quite taint their wit.
William ShakespeareRead
I never said I was an angel. Nor am I innocent or holy like the Virgin Mary. What I am is natural and serious and as sensitive as an open nerve on an ice cube.
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We humans have lost the wisdom of genuinely resting and relaxing. We worry too much. We don't allow our bodies to heal, and we don't allow our minds and hearts to heal.
Nhat HanhRead