We owe our children β the most vulnerable citizens in any society β a life free from violence and fear.
Nelson MandelaRead
Negotiation and discussion are the greatest weapons we have for promoting peace and development.
Interpretation
Negotiation and discussion are essential tools for achieving peace and progress.
In this quote, Nelson Mandela emphasizes the importance of dialogue and negotiation as powerful means to foster both peace and development in society. Rather than resorting to violence or conflict, engaging in constructive conversations can lead to solutions and understanding, thereby contributing to a more harmonious and progressive world.
In practice
In a speech about conflict resolution, one could quote Mandela to emphasize the importance of dialogue.
We owe our children β the most vulnerable citizens in any society β a life free from violence and fear.
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.
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.
We signal that good can be achieved amongst human beings who are prepared to trust, prepared to believe in the goodness of people.
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.
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.
Stability and peace in our land will not come from the barrel of a gun, because peace without justice is an impossibility.
If nations could overcome the mutual fear and distrust whose sombre shadow is now thrown over the world, and could meet with confidence and good will to settle their possible differences, they would easily be able to establish a lasting peace.
The origins of my career as a peace mediator can be found from my childhood years. I was born in the city of Viipuri, then still part of Finland. We lost Viipuri when the Soviet Union attacked my country. Along with 400,000 fellow Karelians, I became an eternally displaced person in the rest of Finland.
You lose nothing through peace. You can lose everything through war.
We're saying this to both countries: We want a two-state solution. We want a Jewish state of Israel and alongside an independent Palestinian state. Unilateral measures are not helping at all to bring about this cause, and we agree that we wish to cooperate very closely on this, because as we both say, time is of the essence.
When we see so many conflicts multiplying, the only way to allow the international community to be able to address those conflicts, the only way to allow the international community to act boldly, is with unity of the countries of the region, able to serve together and in the same universal principles.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.