Nelson Mandela's request for time to engage in "quiet reflection" is richly deserved. Nonetheless the world must quietly regret the departure of one of its most eminent and inspirational statesmen from its stage.
As ever, charm and wit accompanied the announcement that Mr Mandela was ending the whirl of non-stop public appearances that has consumed his life since stepping down as South African president in 1999. "I am retiring from retirement," he quipped. "Don't call me, I'll call you." Mr Mandela is in constant demand simply because he is one of the most endearing icons of modern times. Famous for shepherding South Africa from the wilderness of apartheid in 1994, he became celebrated as a beacon of ideals - liberty, tolerance and integrity.
Whether embracing black township dwellers or joining hands with the white rugby captain, Mr Mandela set a powerful example in a country riven by profound racial divisions. He also carefully quelled bloody tribal tensions that threatened to spill over into civil war on the eve of the 1994 elections. Ironically, his most admirable leadership qualities had been honed in the loneliness of a prison cell on Robben Island, where he spent 18 years of his 27-year prison sentence.
Jailed for life on sabotage charges in 1964 Mr Mandela, a firebrand lawyer and African National Congress activist, advocated armed struggle and guerrilla tactics to achieve the overthrow of the apartheid state. But walking free in 1990 he had become a changed man, tempered by time and aware that events had overtaken him.
Eaten alive by its own twisted logic and bent low by international opprobrium, the white-led National Party was on its knees. But a mammoth challenge remained: to steward South Africa to black-led democracy. As history has shown Mr Mandela, the scion of a royal family from the Transkei, rose to the task. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.
Mr Mandela was not a flawless president. His economically conservative policies reassured western capitalism but failed - at least, so far - to slow rocketing unemployment levels. And, as he admits, his failure to tackle HIV/AIDS was a major mistake.
But he proved to be a man of his continent as well as of his nation. In this respect, his greatest coup was in the leaving of the presidency. After just one five-year term of office, he stepped down. It was an example that resounded across Africa, a continent blighted by a proliferation of unwanted and unwarranted "presidents-for-life". Mr Mandela's place among the towering figures of his time is undisputed.