Quotes by South African/South Africa authors (page 2)

"And I was victim to that very early in my career, where I would go into auditions, and I'd be wearing a big T shirt, a big baggy T shirt and loose jeans. You know, to try and show people that there was more to me than just that"

Charlize Theron, Actress

"When a deep injury is done us, we never recover until we forgive"

Alan Paton, Novelist

"In dancing with the enemy one follows his steps even if counting under one's breath"

Breyten Breytenbach, Writer

"South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white"

Thabo Mbeki, Statesman

"Easier to climb up, than to just hang on"

Ronald Harwood, Playwright

"OK, well maybe I have to get back to Judaism. In the sense that if I look at me and my forebears forever stretching back to I don't know, whenever there's no sense of place and therefore no sense of nationality"

Janet Suzman, Actress

"I would think a sense of the absurd is more important for a political cartoonist, because that could define things like a sense of hypocrisy or a sense of the things one has to be skeptical about"

Jonathan Shapiro, Cartoonist

"Good music is good music, and everything else can go to hell"

Dave Matthews, Musician

"When the water starts boiling it is foolish to turn off the heat"

Nelson Mandela, Statesman

"We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right"

Nelson Mandela, Statesman

"There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered"

Nelson Mandela, Statesman

"There is no such thing as part freedom"

Nelson Mandela, Statesman

"There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living"

Nelson Mandela, Statesman

"There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires"

Nelson Mandela, Statesman

"There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children"

Nelson Mandela, Statesman

"Only free men can negotiate; prisoners cannot enter into contracts. Your freedom and mine cannot be separated"

Nelson Mandela, Statesman

"Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another"

Nelson Mandela, Statesman

"It always seems impossible until its done"

Nelson Mandela, Statesman

"In my country we go to prison first and then become President"

Nelson Mandela, Statesman

"If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner"

Nelson Mandela, Statesman

"If there are dreams about a beautiful South Africa, there are also roads that lead to their goal. Two of these roads could be named Goodness and Forgiveness"

Nelson Mandela, Statesman

"If the United States of America or Britain is having elections, they don't ask for observers from Africa or from Asia. But when we have elections, they want observers"

Nelson Mandela, Statesman

"I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear"

Nelson Mandela, Statesman

"I dream of the realization of the unity of Africa, whereby its leaders combine in their efforts to solve the problems of this continent. I dream of our vast deserts, of our forests, of all our great wildernesses"

Nelson Mandela, Statesman

"I detest racialism, because I regard it as a barbaric thing, whether it comes from a black man or a white man"

Nelson Mandela, Statesman

"I cannot conceive of Israel withdrawing if Arab states do not recognize Israel, within secure borders"

Nelson Mandela, Statesman

"For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others"

Nelson Mandela, Statesman

"Does anybody really think that they didn't get what they had because they didn't have the talent or the strength or the endurance or the commitment?"

Nelson Mandela, Statesman

"A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination"

Nelson Mandela, Statesman

"You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them"

Desmond Tutu, Leader

"Without forgiveness, there's no future"

Desmond Tutu, Leader

"When a pile of cups is tottering on the edge of the table and you warn that they will crash to the ground, in South Africa you are blamed when that happens"

Desmond Tutu, Leader

"We would like to see you departing peacefully"

Desmond Tutu, Leader

"We may be surprised at the people we find in heaven. God has a soft spot for sinners. His standards are quite low"

Desmond Tutu, Leader

"Those who invest in South Africa should not think they are doing us a favor; they are here for what they get out of our cheap and abundant labor, and they should know that they are buttressing one of the most vicious systems"

Desmond Tutu, Leader

"Niger is not an isolated island of desperation. It lies within a sea of problems across Africa - particularly the 'forgotten emergencies' in poor countries or regions with little strategic or material appeal"

Desmond Tutu, Leader

"My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together"

Desmond Tutu, Leader

"In the land of my birth I cannot vote, whereas a young person of eighteen can vote. And why? Because he or she possesses that wonderful biological attribute - a white skin"

Desmond Tutu, Leader

"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality"

Desmond Tutu, Leader

"I am a leader by default, only because nature does not allow a vacuum"

Desmond Tutu, Leader

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Quotes by South African authors