Rosa Parks's Poem by Carole Boston Weatherford, ""December 1st, 1955: Before Rosa Altered History."

`For Southern belles who scour shops for ball gowns, not mirrored in bridge and garden club circles, the holidays are a blur of invitations. The women flock to Montgomery Fair for alterations, tucks here, gussets there and deep hems. Not even mannequins are a perfect size eight. In the whites-only fitting room, Rosa `Yes, Ma'ams' each gloved lady, then returns to the Singer, dizzy from the social whirl she tastes vicariously through customers bidding her to drape flawed figures with chiffon. Yards of silk, satin, velvet slide between needle and treadle. Beads and sequins, like missed chances, slip through her fingers. Thirty days till New Year's Eve, then five months before cotillion. For a few weeks, empty racks and room to breathe, no giggling debutantes, no gossipy matrons with coffee-stained teeth, cigarette breath and syrupy drawls. Tired of Miss Ann, Rosa anticipates quitting time, the glow of Christmas lights and the long ride home. She removes her thimble, knowing that a hoop skirt can pass through the eye of a needle easier than a colored seamstress can hold a seat on a city bus.'

Nelson Mandela's Most Famous Quotes

Here is a list of some of the most famous quotes by Nelson Mandela:


Nelson Mandela's Quotes:

A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.



If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.



It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.



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



During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people, I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if it needs be it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.



As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.



As I have said, the first thing is to be honest with yourself. You can never have an impact on society if you have not changed yourself... Great peacemakers are all people of integrity, of honesty, but humility.



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



If there are dreams about a beautiful South Africa, there are also roads that lead to their goal. Two of these roads could be named Goodness and Forgiveness.



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.



I learned that courage was not the abscence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.



I dream of an Africa which is in peace with itself.



In my country we go to prison first and then become President.



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.



There is nothing like returning to a place that reminds unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.



Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.



Only free men can negotiate; prisoners cannot enter into contracts. Your freedom and mine cannot be separated.



There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.



How can I be expected to believe that this same racial discrimination which has been the cause of so much injustice and suffering right through the years, should now operate here to give me a fair and open trial?....consider myself neither morally nor legally obliged to obey laws made by a Parliament in which I am not represented. That the will of the people is the basis of the authority of government, is a principle universally acknowledged as sacred throughout the civilized world.



I cannot conceive of Israel withdrawing if Arab states do not recognize Israel, within secure borders.



I have never cared very much for personal prizes. A man does not become a freedom fighter in the hope of winning awards, but when I was notified that I had won the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Mr de Klerk, I was deeply moved. The Nobel Peace Prize had a special meaning to me because of its involvement with South African history.... The award was a tribute to all South Africans and especially to those who fought in the struggle; I would accept it on their behalf.



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



When the water starts boiling it is foolish to turn off the heat.



Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that a son of a mineworker can become the head of the mine, that a child of farm workers can become the president of a great nation. It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another.



That was one of the things that worried me - to be raised to the position of a semi-god - because then you are no longer a human being. I wanted to be known as Mandela, a man with weaknesses, some of which are fundamental, and a man who is committed, but never the less, sometimes he fails to live up to expectations.



When I think about the past, the types of things they did, I feel angry, but then again that is my feeling. The brain always dominates, says, as I have pointed out, you have a limited time to stay on Earth. You must try and use that period to transform your country into what you desire it to be.



The curious beauty of African music is that it uplifts even as it tells a sad tale. You may be poor, you may have only a ramshackle house, you may have lost your job, but that song gives you hope. African music is often about the aspirations of the African people, and it can ignite the political resolve of those who might otherwise be indifferent to politics.



We all felt on top of the world. It was a justification for the sacrifices which had been made by our people since the arrival of whites in this country in 1652.



I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can only rest for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not ended.



As a leader...I have always endeavored to listen to what each and every person in a discussion had to say before venturing my own opinion. Oftentimes, my own opinion will simply represent a consensus of what I heard in the discussion. I always remember the axiom: a leader...is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.


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


The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.