It was during those long and lonely years that my hunger for the freedom of my own people became a hunger for the freedom of all people, white and black. I knew as well as I knew anything that the oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed. A man who takes away another man's freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness. I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else's freedom, just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken from me. The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity.
When I walked out of prison, that was my mission, to liberate the oppressed and the oppressor both. Some say that has now been achieved. But I know that that is not the case. The truth is that we are not yet free; we have merely achieved the freedom to be free, the right not to be oppressed. We have not taken the final step of our journey, but the first step on a longer and even more difficult road. 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. The true test of our devotion to freedom is just beginning.
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 rest only for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our Light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves: Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you NOT to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn't serve the world.
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the Glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone.
And, as we let our own Light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
my source for this was: http://home.sn.no/~solhanse/mandela.htm [I can no longer access it] where it was said to be a quote from the Inauguration Speech, 1994. I am grateful to Jemma Allen for referencing this quote. She says: "While it may well have been quoted by Nelson Mandela it was written by Marianne Williamson and appears in her 1992 book 'A Return to Love'. This excerpt appears in full in a book called "Life Prayers from Around the World: 365 Prayers, Blessings and Affirmations to Celebrate the Human Journey" eds are Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon.
Does this now qualify as an "urban myth"? I read at http://www-personal.umich.edu/~airyn/mandela.html someone who had read Mandela's speeches looking for it and finally asked the ANC who stated that he had not even quoted it in a speech! If you now want to read all of Nelson Mandela's speeches there is an index on the ANC site at: http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/mandela/
A more likely author of this quotation is Marianne Williamson, whose "Return
to Love", published in January 1992, is frequently cited as its source (chapter 7, section 3, page 165)."