One day, I was on the front lawn of the property and aimed the gun at a sparrow perched high in a tree. Hazel Goldreich, Arthur's wife, was watching me and jokingly remarked that I would never hit the target. But she had hardly finished the sentence when the sparrow fell to the ground. I turned to her and was about to boast, when the Goldreichs' son Paul, then about five years old, turned to me with tears in his eyes and said, "David, why did you kill that bird? Its mother will be sad." My mood immediately shifted from one of pride to shame; I felt that this small boy had far more humanity than I did. It was an odd sensation for a man who was the leader of a nascent guerrilla army. Nelson Mandela
About This Quote

In South Africa, a boy was playing with a gun and accidentally killed a small sparrow. His mother was not happy with his actions and had to deal with him after the fact. The boy looked at her sadly and asked her why she was upset. The mother in this case cannot have been very happy because she felt her son should have known better than to kill an animal in anger.

He would have learned the lesson much better if he had learned it in a more casual manner. Even though he didn't learn it by being hit in the head, but through being told that his actions are wrong when they are done without cause.

Source: Long Walk To Freedom

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