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December 5, 2013

The Poem that got Nelson Mandela through 27 years in Prison.

 

Rest in the Peace you have earned and created, Madiba.

For more:
Power to the People: Nelson Mandela Quotes I Live By.
5 Minutes to Peace.

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Full “Mountaintop” Speech + The March.
~

95 years old, 27 of them in prison. He was born just after World War I and he lived to see a black man elected president of the USA.

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

“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”

 

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“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 come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not ended.”

“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”

If anyone’s interested in learning more about this mans life I highly recommend his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom.

“A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.”  ~ Nelson Mandela

He truly lived his life by the poem that got him through prison:

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Invictus, by William Ernest Henley.

~
Rest in the Peace you worked so hard and with such good cheer to create, Madiba.

(sources)

 

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