Nelson Mandela

27 years in a cell, walked out, and chose to keep his jailers' country together rather than win against them.

Mandela entered Robben Island in 1964. He left Victor Verster Prison on February 11, 1990, after 27 years and 6 months. Most prisoners come out smaller. He came out larger — having used the prison years to learn Afrikaans, study his guards, and rehearse the negotiation he could not yet have. From release to first democratic election was four more years. As president (1994–1999) he refused the easy revenge: he kept the Springbok rugby jersey the apartheid era had used as its symbol, wore it to the 1995 World Cup final, and shook François Pienaar's hand on the field — a gesture that did more for white South African buy-in than any law could have. He designed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to refuse the show trials a winner is entitled to. "It always seems impossible until it's done." The transmutation took 31 years from arrest to inauguration. It needed every one of them.