37 DEFINITIVE QUOTES FROM 11 ICONIC MAVERICKS AND REVOLUTIONARIES

NELSON MANDELA“In some ways, I saw the garden as a metaphor for certain aspects of my life. A leader must also tend his garden; he, too, plants seeds, and then watches, cultivates, and harvests the results. Like the gardener, a leader must take responsibility for what he cultivates; he must mind his work, try to repel enemies, preserve what can be preserved, and eliminate what cannot succeed.

“It is in your hands to create a better world for all who live in it.

“I had no epiphany, no singular revelation, no moment of truth, but a steady accumulation of a thousand slights, a thousand indignities and a thousand unremembered moments produced in me an anger, a rebelliousness, a desire to fight the system that imprisoned my people. There was no particular day on which I said, Henceforth I will devote myself to the liberation of my people; instead, I simply found myself doing so, and could not do otherwise.

THOMAS SANKARA“ You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness. In this case, it comes from nonconformity, the courage to turn your back on the old formulas, the courage to invent the future. It took the madmen of yesterday for us to be able to act with extreme clarity today. I want to be one of those madmen. We must dare to invent the future.

“He who feeds you, controls you

“ We have to work at decolonizing our mentality and achieving happiness within the limits of sacrifice we should be willing to make. We have to recondition our people to accept themselves as they are, to not be ashamed of their real situation, to be satisfied with it, to glory in it, even

CHE GUEVARA“ Every person has the truth in his heart. No matter how complicated his circumstances, no matter how others look at him from the outside, and no matter how deep or shallow the truth dwells in his heart, once his heart is pieced with a crystal needle, the truth will gush forth like a geyser.

“ The true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love.

“ I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves.

“ The ultimate and most important revolutionary aspiration: to see human beings liberated from their alienation

BOB MARLEY“You say you love rain, but you use an umbrella to walk under it. You say you love sun, but you seek shelter when it is shining. You say you love wind, but when it comes you close your windows. So that's why I'm scared when you say you love me.

“Until the philosophy which hold one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned... Everything is war. Me say war. That until they're no longer 1st class and 2nd class citizens of any nation... Until the colour of a man's skin is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes, me say war. That until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race me say war!

“If she's amazing, she won't be easy. If she's easy, she won't be amazing. If she's worth it, you wont give up. If you give up, you're not worthy. ... Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for.

MOTHER THERESA“ Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you.

“ The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.

“ Life is an opportunity, benefit from it. Life is beauty, admire it. Life is a dream, realize it. Life is a challenge, meet it. Life is a duty, complete it. Life is a game, play it. Life is a promise, fulfil it. Life is sorrow, overcome it. Life is a song, sing it. Life is a struggle, accept it. Life is a tragedy, confront it. Life is an adventure, dare it. Life is luck, make it. Life is too precious, do not destroy it. Life is life, fight for it.

POPE JOHN PAUL II“ Around the world, we see the results of exploitation which destroys much without taking future generations into account. Protecting the world's forests; stemming desertification and erosion; avoiding the spread of toxic substances harmful to man, animals and plants; protecting the atmosphere; all these can be accomplished only through active and wise cooperation, without borders or political power plays.

“ All of us experience the sad effects of blind submission to consumerism. In the first place it represents crass materialism. At the same time it represents a radical dissatisfaction because one quickly learns that the more one possesses, the more one wants, while deeper aspirations remain unsatisfied and perhaps even stifled.

“ The frenetic pace of modern life can lead to an obscuring or even a loss of what is truly human... Perhaps more than in other periods of history, our time is in need of that genius which belongs to women, and which can ensure sensitivity for human beings in every circumstance.

DAG HAMMARSKJOLD“ I don't know Who, or what, put the question, I don't know when it was put. I don't even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone, or Something, and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal.

“ In the last analysis, it is our conception of death which decides our answers to all the questions that life puts to us.

“ Never, for the sake of peace and quiet, deny your own experience or convictions.

“ You are the lens in the beam. You can only receive, give, and possess the light as the lens does. If you seek yourself, you rob the lens of its transparency. You will know life and be acknowledged by it according to your degree of transparency, your capacity, that is, to vanish as an end, and remain purely as a means.

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.“ The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

“ There is nothing more tragic than to find an individual bogged down in the length of life, devoid of breadth.

“ I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.

PRINCESS DIANA“Perhaps we're too embarrassed to change or too frightened of the consequences of showing that we actually care. But why not risk it anyway? Begin today. Carry out a random act of seemingly senseless kindness, with no expectation of reward or punishment, safe in the knowledge that one day, someone somewhere might do the same for you.

“A mother's arms are more comforting than anyone else's.

“It has always been my concern to touch people with leprosy, trying to show in a simple action that they are not reviled, nor are we repulsed.

“HIV does not make people dangerous to know, so you can shake their hands and give them a hug: Heaven knows they need it.

ALBERT EINSTEIN“ Nothing will end war unless the people refuse to go to war.

“ Women marry men hoping they will change. Men marry women hoping they will not.

“ I have never belonged wholeheartedly to country or State, to my circle of friends or even to my own family... Such isolation is sometimes bitter, but I do not regret being cut off from the understanding and sympathy of other men. I lose something by it to be sure, but I am compensated for it in being rendered independent of the customs, opinions and prejudices of others, and am not tempted to rest my peace of mind upon such shifting foundations.

“ Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.

NICOLA TESLA “ Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born.

“ When wireless is fully applied the earth will be converted into a huge brain, capable of response in every one of its parts.

“ I don't care that they stole my idea . . I care that they don't have any of their own

“ All peoples everywhere should have free energy sources.

“ Anti-social behaviour is a trait of intelligence in a world full of conformists.