"A garden was one of the few..." - Quote by Nelson Mandela
A garden was one of the few thing in prison that one could control. To plant a seed, watch it grow, to tend it then harvest it, offered a simple but enduring satisfaction. The sense of being the custodian of this small patch of earth offered a taste of freedom.
More by Nelson Mandela
“You encourage people by seeing the good in them.”
“I've found that South Africa has produced good leaders. These are people who realize that when there is danger, they should be in the forefront and when there is victory to be celebrated, they should be in the background, allowing their colleagues and the ordinary civilians - the man in the street - to rejoice and to celebrate that victory.”
“Thinking is one of the most important weapons in dealing with problems”
More on Prison
“At this point I hadn't yet gotten deep into the historic condition that negroes in this country are confronted with, but at that point in my prison studies I, I read, I studied Islam as a religion more so than as I later come to know it in its connection with the plight or problem of Negroes in this country.”
“Imprisonment, as it exists today, is a worse crime than any of those committed by its victims.”
“[People] earn extra money [in prison] selling contraband, dope, and things of that sort to the inmates, and so that really it's an exploiter.”
More on Control
“Order marches with weighty and measured strides. Disorder is always in a hurry.”
“Each man is master of his own death, and all that we can do when the time comes is to help him die without fear of pain.”
“Liberty is not for these slaves; I do not advocate inflicting it against their conscience. On the contrary, I am strongly in favor of letting them crawl and grovel all they please before whatever fraud or combination of frauds they choose to venerate...Our whole practical government is grounded in mob psychology and the Boobus Americanus will follow any command that promises to make him safer.”