Quotations and Literature Forum

http://www.quotationspage.com/special.php3?file=w971026

The quotation attributed to Nelson Mandela on this page is not his. The author is Marianne Williamson. For details, see:

http://www.quotationspage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2406#2406

Unfortunately for Williamson, this mix-up of attributions will probably last forever. It's all over the Internet attributed to Mandela, as in
http://www.personcentered.com/mandela.htm
Most of the time it is claimed to have been in his "inaugural speech, 1994."
He made at least two inauguration speeches that year, and neither of them contain anything even close to it. Some say it is in one of his "lesser known speeches," but no verification of that seems to be possible, and even if it is, he would have been quoting Williamson and apparently not giving her credit for it.

Mandela's inauguration speeches, 1994:
Union Building, Pretoria 10 May 1994
http://www.polity.org.za/html/govdocs/s ... bookmark=1
Grand Parade, Cape Town, 9 May 1994
http://www.polity.org.za/html/govdocs/s ... 0509a.html

I wrote to Williamson's organization, asking about the email post of hers that you shared -- to confirm that she indeed wrote it and to ask whether she still had any reason to believe that it was ever included in a lesser speech of Mandela's. I haven't receive a reply.