Did Nelson Mandela say “It always seems impossible until it's done”?

The exact words

“It always seems impossible until it's done.”Widely attributed to Nelson Mandela; no primary source has been identified

? UnsourcedNo reliable source has been found for this wording, so we cannot confirm who said it.

Why there is no source

Nelson Mandela’s words are unusually well documented. His autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, his prison letters, his speeches as president and many of his interviews are published and archived, much of it by the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg. “It always seems impossible until it’s done” does not appear in any of them, and no one has produced a recording, a newspaper report or an eyewitness account of him saying it.

The line began to circulate online in the 2000s, typically with no date or occasion attached, which is the classic sign of a misattribution. It exploded after Mandela’s death in December 2013, when it was shared in countless tributes.

Why it stuck to Mandela

Some quotes find the person who seems to have lived them. Mandela spent twenty-seven years in prison and walked out to negotiate the peaceful end of apartheid and become South Africa’s first democratically elected president. If anyone’s life proved that the impossible can be done, it was his. That fit is exactly why the attribution is so persuasive, and why it is so hard to correct.

How to use it

The sentence is still a good one, and there is nothing wrong with using it in a team talk or a card. Just present it honestly, as a saying “often credited to Mandela.” If you want a real Mandela quote about perseverance, his statement from the dock at the Rivonia Trial in 1964, where he said the ideal of a free society was one “for which I am prepared to die,” is verified and far more powerful.

What people get wrong

Common reading
A famous line from one of Mandela's speeches.

Closer to the original
A popular saying credited to Mandela with no known source. It reflects the spirit of his life, but there is no record of him saying it.

Timeline

2000sThe line begins appearing online and in motivational books credited to Mandela, without a date or occasion.
December 2013After Mandela's death, the quote is shared millions of times in tributes, including by public figures.
TodayResearchers and archives have not found it in Mandela's speeches, letters, interviews or autobiography.

Use it in a speech

There's a saying often credited to Nelson Mandela: it always seems impossible until it's done. Whoever first said it, Mandela's life proved it, and so does the degree in your hand.

~12 secondsto say aloud

Pauseafter “until it's done”