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About this quote

What does it mean?
Mandela says that having both intelligence and compassion makes a person especially powerful.
In plain terms
A good mind and a good heart together are a strong combination.
What can you take from it?
Cultivate both intellect and empathy.

Where it applies

  • team management
  • community organizing
  • conflict resolution

Putting it to work

  • practice active listening
  • continue learning

Questions to consider

  • How can you develop empathy while sharpening your mind?
  • When might compassion conflict with rational decisions?

Another view

Intelligence without compassion can become cold; compassion without knowledge can be misguided.

More from Nelson Mandela

  1. Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mineworker…

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  2. I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.

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  3. No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to…

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