South african author Quotes

“Learn to know yourself... to search realistically and regularly the processes of your own mind and feelings.”

“Home is home even for those who aspire to serve wider interests and who have established their home of choice in distant regions.”

“I would like to be remembered not as anyone unique or special, but as part of a great team in this country that has struggled for many years, for decades and even centuries. The greatest glory of living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time you fall.”

“Times change, we need to change as well.”

“If there is one thing in this planet that has the power to bind people it is soccer.”

“Living isn't just about doing for yourself,but what you do for others as well.”

“Our fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure.”

“It is also the fate of leadership to be misunderstood. For historians, academics, writers and journalists to reflect great lives according to their own subjective canon.”

“The time will come when our nation will honour the memory of all the sons, the daughters, the mothers, the fathers, the youth and the children who, by their thoughts and deeds, gave us the right to assert with pride that we are South Africans, that we are Africans, and that we are citizens of the world.”

“Death is something inevitable. When a man has done what he considers to be his duty to his people and his country, he can rest in peace. I believe I have made that effort and that is, therefore, why I will sleep for the eternity.”

“I learned that to humiliate another person is to make him suffer an unnecessarily cruel fate. Even as a boy, I defeated my opponents without dishonoring them.”

“As long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest.”

“Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.”

“Politics can be strengthened by music, but music has a potency that defies politics.”

“If you don’t intend having a compromise, you don’t negotiate at all.”

“My family is very large. 42 million.”

“It always gives me great pleasure to be surrounded by the beautiful children of our land. Whenever I am with the energetic young people ... I feel like a recharged battery, confident that our country can look forward to great things.”

“Music is a great blessing. It has the power to elevate and liberate us. It sets people free to dream. It can unite us to sing with one voice. Such is the value of music.”

“Our freedom is also incomplete, dear compatriots, as long as we are denied our security by criminals who prey on our communities, who rob our businesses and undermine our economy, who ply their destructive trade in drugs in our schools, and who do violence against our women and children.”

“Force is the only language the imperialists can hear, and no country became free without some sort of violence.”

“You see, when there is danger, a good leader takes the front line. But when there is celebration, a good leader stays in the back room. If you want the cooperation of human beings around you, make them feel that they are important. And you do that by being humble.”

“If you don't allow people to contribute, to offer their point of view, or to criticize what has been put before them, then they can never like you. And you can never build that instrument of collective leadership.”

“It is a grave error for any leader to be oversensitive in the face of criticism”

“One of the sad realities today is that very few people, especially young people, read books. Unless we can find imaginative ways of addressing this reality, future generations are in danger of losing their history.”

“To a freedom fighter hope is what a lifebelt is to a swimmer - a guarantee that one will keep afloat and free from danger.”