We owe our children β the most vulnerable citizens in any society β a life free from violence and fear.
Nelson MandelaRead
Peace is the greatest weapon for development that any person can have.
Interpretation
Peace fosters growth and development in individuals and societies.
In this quote, Nelson Mandela emphasizes the vital role that peace plays in achieving development. He suggests that without peace, progress in various aspects of lifeβbe it social, economic, or personalβis unattainable. By viewing peace as a weapon, he highlights its strength and importance in creating a better world for everyone.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about conflict resolution efforts.
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.
Peace does not appear so distant as it did. I hope it will come soon, and come to stay; and so come as to be worth the keeping in all future time.
War will stop when we no longer praise it, or give it any attention at all. Peace will come wherever it is sincerely invited.
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.
They assert that their program is purely peaceful. . . . We want them to demonstrate clearly in the actions they propose that they have truly abandoned any nuclear weapons ambition.
Peace with all the world is my sincere wish. I am sure it is our true policy, and am persuaded it is the ardent desire of the government.
If development is the new name for peace, war and preparations for war are the major enemy of the healthy development of peoples. If we take the common good of all humanity as our norm, instead of individual greed, peace would be possible.
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