Nelson Mandela is one of those figures so universally revered that people seem compelled to put words in his mouth. He was a moral authority, a symbol of reconciliation, someone whose name lends weight to any sentiment about perseverance or justice. And that’s exactly the problem: if you want your inspirational quote to go viral, slap Mandela’s name on it and watch it spread.
I’ve traced hundreds of misattributed quotes, and I’ve noticed a pattern with Mandela specifically. Unlike some historical figures who collect misattributions centuries after their deaths, Mandela attracted false quotes while he was still alive—and especially in the years just before and after his death in 2013, when the internet was awash in tribute posts. The two quotes below show both flavors of this problem: one is an old chestnut that’s been pinned on every wise-sounding name from Confucius to Vince Lombardi, and Mandela just became the latest victim. The other seems to have been invented out of whole cloth in the 2000s, spreading rapidly in that perfect storm of social media shares and genuine admiration. Neither one appears in any book, speech, or database connected to Mandela himself.
“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
This one has been making the rounds for over 250 years, just with different names attached. Oliver Goldsmith actually wrote it in 1760, publishing it in The Public Ledger as part of his “Chinese Letters”—a series written in the voice of a fictional Chinese philosopher named Lien Chi Altangi. When the letters were collected as The Citizen of the World in 1762, there it was in Letter VII: “Our greatest glory is, not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
The Confucius misattribution started almost immediately. By 1831, The Royal Lady’s Magazine in London was printing it with “—Confucius” tacked on the end. Goldsmith’s Chinese narrator apparently fooled people into thinking it was an actual ancient Chinese proverb. From there it drifted to other famous names—Vince Lombardi picked it up somewhere along the way—and eventually landed on Mandela, presumably because it sounds like something he would have said about resilience. But Quote Investigator checked the 1762 edition, and there’s zero evidence connecting the line to anyone but Goldsmith.
MISATTRIBUTED
- Commonly attributed to: Confucius, Vince Lombardi, Nelson Mandela
- Actual source: Oliver Goldsmith, writing as the fictional Chinese philosopher Lien Chi Altangi in his “Chinese Letters” (The Public Ledger, London, 1760–61), collected as The Citizen of the World (1762), Letter VII
- Earliest verified appearance: 1760/1762 — Oliver Goldsmith, The Citizen of the World, Letter VII: “Our greatest glory is, not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” Quote Investigator examined the 1762 edition; no substantive evidence connects the line to Confucius — see the evidence chain (Quote Investigator)
- Where the misattribution started: 1831 — The Royal Lady’s Magazine (London) printed it as “…— Confucius.” Goldsmith’s Chinese-narrator framing likely seeded the misattribution
- Confidence: High
The verdict: Oliver Goldsmith wrote this line in 1760 in the voice of a fictional Chinese philosopher, and by 1831 a London magazine had reassigned it to the real Confucius, who never said it.
“It always seems impossible until it’s done.”
This one’s even more straightforward: there’s simply no record of Mandela ever saying it. The Nelson Mandela Foundation maintains a quotation database, and it’s not there. Quote Investigator combed through Mandela’s books and speeches and came up empty. The sentiment itself is old—Pliny the Elder wrote something very similar around 77 CE in his Natural History, musing that “How many things, too, are looked upon as quite impossible, until they have been actually effected?” By 1862, Daniel Wilson’s Prehistoric Man phrased it almost exactly as we know it today: “indeed is not everything impossible until it is done?”
So it’s proverbial wisdom, not Mandela wisdom. The first time Quote Investigator found it linked to Mandela was in 2001, in an Australian newspaper describing a sign on a solar-powered boat. From there, it spread quietly until the final years of Mandela’s life, when the internet turned it into one of those ubiquitous inspirational-quote-on-sunset-background images. By the time Mandela died in 2013, millions of people were certain he’d said it. He hadn’t.
MISATTRIBUTED
- Commonly attributed to: Nelson Mandela
- Actual source: Proverbial, with no traceable link to Mandela: Quote Investigator found no instance in any Mandela book or speech, and the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s quotation database has no record. The idea traces to Pliny the Elder (c. 77 CE), with near-exact wording by 1862
- Earliest verified appearance: 1862 — Daniel Wilson, Prehistoric Man: “indeed is not everything impossible until it is done?” Oldest analog: Pliny the Elder, Natural History (c. 77 CE): “How many things, too, are looked upon as quite impossible, until they have been actually effected?” — see the evidence chain (Quote Investigator)
- Where the misattribution started: 2001 — the earliest Mandela attribution Quote Investigator found (an Australian newspaper report of a sign on a solar-powered boat); the linkage spread only in the last dozen years before his death in 2013
- Confidence: High
The verdict: There is no record of Mandela saying this — the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s database has no trace, the earliest attribution to him dates to 2001, and the proverb runs back through an 1862 near-match to Pliny the Elder.
What strikes me about both of these is how little resistance there is to false attribution once it starts rolling. One quote got mis-credited because the original author used a Chinese persona, and people have been playing telephone with it ever since. The other just appeared on a boat sign one day and became canon within a decade. Nobody checked. Nobody asked for a source. Mandela’s name was enough.
If there’s a lesson here, it’s this: the more a quote sounds like something a famous person would say, the more skeptical you should be. Inspirational quotes are designed to be shared, not sourced. So next time you see one that gives you that little jolt of “wow, what wisdom,” do yourself a favor—look it up. You might be surprised how often the person who supposedly said it never did.
Browse more of Nelson Mandela’s quotes — real and otherwise — in the full Nelson Mandela collection.