Zelda la Grange > Quotes

“Another of Madiba's great lessons: you can have a vast difference of opinion with someone but that never justifies disrespect.”
― Zelda la Grange, Good Morning, Mr Mandela (KER.BIO/AUTOBIO)

“It’s not important in life what happens to you, but how you handle what happens to you.”
― Zelda la Grange, Good Morning, Mr. Mandela: A Memoir

“[Mandela] subsequently used words that never left me: 'Because you hold a particular position, doesn't mean that you are more important that anyone else. Your time is not more valuable that anybody else's time. If you are late you show that you have no respect for another person's time and therefore no respect for other people because you consider yourself to be more important.”
― Zelda la Grange

“To test a man's character, give him power. Once people have power they will always reveal themselves.”
― Zelda la Grange

“Bitterness will make you sick. During [Madiba's] imprisonment they were forced to work in the limestone quarry. Chipping away for no reason. Bitterness is the same. You reduce your own character with such a mindless exercise of cultivating bitterness.”
― Zelda la Grange

“Loyalty and dedication can't be bought or paid to go away.”
― Zelda la Grange

“Be kind to every person you meet because we don't know their battles.”
― Zelda la Grange

“There is a difference between really being concerned about service delivery and incompetence and just complaining for the sake of it.”
― Zelda la Grange, Good Morning, Mr Mandela (KER.BIO/AUTOBIO)

“President Mandela was never scared to admit his own mistakes and then almost jump at the opportunity of apologising and then to move on.”
― Zelda la Grange, Good Morning, Mr Mandela (KER.BIO/AUTOBIO)

“It is of vital importance to [Mandela] to be courteous and grateful at all times, as we never know whether we will have the opportunity to thank people or pay respect whenever they have been good to you.”
― Zelda la Grange

“There are literally a million ways to deal with any situation and Madiba was the best teacher in tutoring me to see those ways, but lying was never an option.”
― Zelda la Grange

“The way you approach a person will determine how that person treats you...
'People will forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.”
― Zelda la Grange

“It was irrelevant how much time you spent with Madiba. Your relationship with him depended on how you felt about him in you heart.”
― Zelda la Grange

“Whenever a journalist wrote an article about him that was critical in nature... he would invite them to a meal and at first they assumed they were in trouble for being critical of him. But they soon learned after arrival at his house for a meal that he merely wanted to engage with them to get an understanding of they criticism... Madiba didn't attempt to change their minds. He would have an informed opinion after having engaged with them, and even though he occasionally changed an opinion by offering correct information, they never parted feeling hostile.”
― Zelda la Grange

“[Mandela] had believed all his life that you are very much in control of your own body, and, in the process of healing, your mind had to be stronger than the medicines applied. You also had to have determination to get better.”
― Zelda la Grange, Good Morning, Mr Mandela (KER.BIO/AUTOBIO)