Leader Quotes

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent.

The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

I will burn your city, your land, your self.

If you wish to spare yourself and your venerable family, give heed to my advice with the ear of intelligence. If you do not, you will see what God has willed.

We were once friends with the whites but you nudged us out of the way by your intrigues, and now when we are in council you keep nudging each other.

We want to take good tidings home to our people, that they may sleep in peace.

I want you to give all these chiefs of the soldiers here to understand that we are for peace, and that we have made peace, that we may not be mistaken by them for enemies.

But we want peace, I would move all my people down this way. I could then keep them all quietly near camp.

Although the troops have struck us, we throw it all behind and are glad to meet you in peace and friendship.

All we ask is that we have peace with the whites. We want to hold you by the hand. You are our father.

Why don't you talk, and go straight, and let all be well?

We have been travelling through a cloud. The sky has been dark ever since the war began.

I once thought that I was the only man that persevered to be the friend of the white man, but since they have come and cleaned out our lodges, horses, and everything else, it is hard for to believe the white man any more.

You do what you have to do in life, when you form a philosophy that you can't talk yourself out of.

People who decide they came to earth to work, who make work their personal philosophy, are kept very busy.

We are given to the cult of personality; when things go badly we look to some messiah to save us. If by chance we think we have found one, it will not be long before we destroy him.

We too, through lack of knowledge and of sufficiently mature reflection, mistook the visible outward appearance of the phenomenon for the phenomenon itself.

This led me to understand that trade unionism, the instrument of working-class liberation and of social change could, and indeed should, be also an instrument of industrial progress.

This disaster did not force us to abandon our ideal; on the contrary, from the very first months of the conflict, it led us to define precisely the conditions for its realization.

The working classes were becoming more and more sharply aware of the complex causes of international malaise.

The trade unions, far from being content with these declarations, established international liaisons and supported every policy based on pacification and understanding.

On completion of my military service, I went back to the factory and to the trade union.