"Master of My Fate, Captain of My Soul."


Nelson Mandela was prisoner 46664 for 25 years. He was inspired by the poem "Invictus", which ends with these lines:

I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

(From Wikipedia: Mandela was imprisoned on Robben Island in 1964, and was the 466th prisoner to arrive that year. The prison administration's scheme of numbering prisoners was to follow the sequence number of the prisoner (466 in his case), with the last two digits of the year (64). The number was imposed on him by the prison for over 25 years, until his release in 1990. "Prisoner 46664" continues to be used, as a reverential title for him, and the Nelson Mandela Foundation uses 46664.com as its website address.)

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