The famous speech Nelson Mandela never gave?

[marrya]

I came across this assertion:

the mandela inaugural speech myth
The following quote is not Nelson Mandela's and he's never used it. It's commonly believed that Mandela used these words in his 1994 inauguration speech. He didn't. It comes from the book A Return To Love, 1992, by Marianne Williamson.

" 'Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.' We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we subconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." (Marianne Williamson, author, from A Return To Love, 1992. Ack C Wilson and J Cooke. ]

really? Marianne Williamson's site doesn't seem to mention it...

[snopes]

The passage does indeed appear in A Return to Love, although that doesn't preclude the possibility that Nelson Mandela might have quoted it in a speech.

- snopes

[lynnejanet]

I have often heard this passage ascribed to Mandela - incorrectly, it seems.

[marrya]

Well, that's what's confusing me - I've seen in attributed to Mandela all over the place - a friend has a poster of it in her loo... you'd have thought that someone somewhere would have at least demanded royalties? or something??

Never heard of it.

And since Mandela is an atheist he wouldn't use all those references to God being inside us either.

Here is the actual text of his speech.

The reference to God at the end is a quote of the first line of the national anthem.

ETA: if anyone in South Africa used this passage it would most likely be Archbishop Desmond Tutu.