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

Q: Did Nelson Mandela say "It always seems impossible until it's done"?

No. There is no record of Nelson Mandela ever saying or writing this line: the Nelson Mandela Foundation's archive returns nothing, and the earliest known Mandela attribution appears in an Australian newspaper in 2001. The underlying idea — that things look impossible only until they are done — traces back nearly 2,000 years to Pliny the Elder and a long chain of later writers.

Who really said it

It always seems impossible until it's done

Not Nelson Mandela — an evolving proverb (earliest form: Pliny the Elder) No single author — a proverb Mandela never sourced Sentiment dates to Pliny the Elder, c. AD 77; linked to Mandela only from 2001

Disputed Free to reuse

There is no record of Nelson Mandela ever saying or writing this line: the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s archive returns nothing, and the earliest known Mandela attribution appears in an Australian newspaper in 2001. The underlying idea — that things look impossible only until they are done — traces back nearly 2,000 years to Pliny the Elder and a long chain of later writers ↗.

Last verified 7 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed — copy with the correction

“It always seems impossible until it's done” Proverb of uncertain origin, frequently misattributed to Nelson Mandela; earliest known form in Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia (c. AD 77). Not a documented Mandela quotation.

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In context

Evoking the world of Pliny the Elder (earliest source of the idea) — Roman naturalist & author. Theme: "It always seems impossible until it's done". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

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Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "It always seems impossible until it's done". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The source

Popular attribution: Nelson Mandela (no record in his archive)
Earliest form: Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia
Date of idea: c. AD 77 (Pliny); Mandela link from 2001
Status: Misattributed — evolving proverb, no single author

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.”

Pliny the Elder, c. AD 77: “How many things, too, are looked upon as quite impossible, until they have been actually effected?”

Robert H. Goddard, 1921: “everything is impossible until it is done.”

Robert Heinlein, 1951: “Everything is theoretically impossible, until it’s done.” ↑ the ‘Mandela’ line is the latest link in a 2,000-year chain

The polished modern wording has no identifiable first author. What is documented is the sentiment’s long descent from antiquity — and that it was not attached to Mandela’s name until 2001.

Quote Investigator: full chronology of “It always seems impossible until it’s done”

The paper trail

Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia (c. AD 77): “How many things, too, are looked upon as quite impossible, until they have been actually effected?” — the earliest form traced by Quote Investigator ↗.
Rocket pioneer Robert H. Goddard, Scientific American (1921): “everything is impossible until it is done”; SF author Robert Heinlein, Between Planets (1951): “Everything is theoretically impossible, until it’s done” — per Quote Investigator ↗.
Earliest Mandela attribution: the Illawarra Mercury (Wollongong, Australia), 21 April 2001 — a dozen years before Mandela’s death, via Quote Investigator ↗.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation has no record of him saying it, its senior researcher Sahm Venter told Africa Check ↗.

Public domain

The ancient source (Pliny) is firmly public domain. The exact modern wording is an anonymous, unsourced proverb with no identifiable rights-holder — and, importantly, no verified tie to Nelson Mandela.

Fact-check

Who it really wasn’t

This is one of the most widely shared ‘Mandela’ quotes on the internet — printed on posters, mugs and graduation cards — yet it cannot be found in anything Mandela is documented to have said or written.

Nelson Mandela

The Nelson Mandela Foundation’s searchable archive returns no results for the line, and senior researcher Sahm Venter told Africa Check ↗ the Foundation has no record of him saying it. The earliest Mandela attribution located by Quote Investigator ↗ is a 2001 Australian newspaper item — not a Mandela speech.

Robert Heinlein or Robert H. Goddard rare

Both used close cousins of the line — Goddard in Scientific American (1921) and Heinlein in Between Planets (1951) — but neither coined the exact modern wording, and the idea predates them by centuries, per Quote Investigator ↗.

Bottom line: there is no evidence Nelson Mandela ever said it. The line is an anonymous, evolving proverb whose earliest form belongs to Pliny the Elder, c. AD 77 ↗.

Context

Why the misattribution stuck

The line fits the popular image of Mandela — endurance, the long road to freedom, victory that looked impossible until it arrived — so perfectly that it feels like something he must have said. That plausibility is exactly what lets a floating proverb attach itself to a famous name and stay there.

In reality the thought is one humanity has reached for repeatedly: Pliny the Elder framed it as a rhetorical question in the first century, and the twentieth century supplied crisper versions from a rocket scientist and a science-fiction novelist before the polished modern wording drifted onto Mandela’s name around 2001.

It feels like something Mandela must have said — which is exactly how a proverb borrows a famous name.

The documented lineage, step by step

Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia (c. AD 77): “How many things, too, are looked upon as quite impossible, until they have been actually effected?” Daniel Wilson echoed it in Prehistoric Man (1862).

Robert H. Goddard wrote in Scientific American (1921): “everything is impossible until it is done.” Robert Heinlein gave it near-modern form in Between Planets (1951): “Everything is theoretically impossible, until it’s done.”

The first attribution to Mandela that researchers have found is a 2001 Illawarra Mercury article in Australia — over a decade before his death in 2013, and with no link to any actual Mandela address or writing.

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Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Quote Origin: It Always Seems Impossible Until It’s Donequoteinvestigator.com

Definitive chronology tracing the saying from Pliny the Elder through Goddard and Heinlein, and dating the Mandela attribution to 2001.

No record of Mandela saying ‘it always seems impossible until it’s done’africacheck.org

Fact-check quoting the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s senior researcher confirming no record of the quote.

Nelson Mandela — Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org

Background on the person to whom the line is popularly (and wrongly) credited.

Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia (Perseus)perseus.tufts.edu

Primary text of the ancient work containing the earliest form of the sentiment.

Britannica — 15 Nelson Mandela Quotesbritannica.com

Reference list of Mandela quotations, useful for contrasting sourced lines with this unsourced one.

The real lineage

An idea older than the misattribution

Pliny the Elder (earliest source of the idea)

c. AD 23/24–79 · Roman naturalist & author

Pliny the Elder was a Roman author, naturalist and military commander whose encyclopedic Naturalis Historia (c. AD 77) preserves the earliest known form of this thought: “How many things, too, are looked upon as quite impossible, until they have been actually effected?” The sentiment resurfaced across the centuries — in Daniel Wilson (1862), rocket pioneer Robert H. Goddard (1921) and SF writer Robert Heinlein (1951) — long before its crisp modern wording was pinned, without evidence, on Nelson Mandela around 2001.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Quote Investigator chronology

Garson O’Toole (Quote Investigator), “It Always Seems Impossible Until It’s Done,” 5 January 2016, quoteinvestigator.com/2016/01/05/done/ — tracing the sentiment to Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia (c. AD 77), with the earliest Mandela attribution in the Illawarra Mercury, 21 April 2001.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘It always seems impossible until it’s done’?” Last verified 7 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/it-always-seems-impossible-until-its-done