Mandela het dikwels gesê dat sy vonnis hom die vermoë gegee het om na binne te keer en te dink, om binne-in homself die dinge wat hy vir Suid -Afrika begeer het, te skep: vrede, versoening, harmonie.
Mandela said often that the gift of prison was the ability to go within and to think, to create in himself the things he most wanted for South Africa: peace, reconciliation, harmony.