Notes to the Future: Words of Wisdom

From the heart and soul of visionary Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela, a collection of his most uplifting, time-honored quotes that have inspired our world and offer a path for peace.

“The book that you hold in your hands is nothing short of a miracle.” —Desmond Tutu, from the Introduction

Notes to the Future is the definitive book of quotations from one of the great leaders of our time. This collection—gathered from privileged access to Mandela’s vast personal archive of private papers, speeches, correspondence, and audio recordings—features more than three hundred quotations spanning more than sixty years and includes his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech.

These inspirational quotations, organized into four sections—Struggle, Victory, Wisdom, and Future—are both universal and deeply personal. We see Mandela’s sense of humor, his loneliness and despair, his thoughts on fatherhood, and the reluctant leader who had no choice but to become the man history demanded.

“A good pen can also remind us of the happiest moments in our lives, bring noble ideas into our dens, our blood and our souls. It can turn tragedy into hope and victory” (from a letter to Zindzi Mandela, written on Robben Island, February 10, 1980).

Nelson Mandela was born in Transkei, South Africa on 18 July 1918. He joined the African National Congress in 1944 and was engaged in resistance against the ruling National Party’s apartheid policies for many years before being arrested in August 1962. Mandela was incarcerated for more than twenty-seven years, during which his reputation as a potent symbol of resistance to the anti-apartheid movement grew steadily. Released from prison in 1990, Mandela won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 and was inaugurated as the first democratically elected president of South Africa in 1994. He is the author of the international bestseller Long Walk to Freedom.