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South Africa Quotes

Browse 680 quotes about South Africa.

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South Africa Quotes

“The international community has to overcome its differences and find solutions to the conflicts of today in South Sudan, Syria, Central African Republic and elsewhere. Non-traditional donors need to step up alongside traditional donors. As many people are forcibly displaced today as the entire populations of medium-to-large countries such as Colombia or Spain, South Africa or South Korea.”

PeopleNeedsCountryTodayCommunityDifferencesStepsConflictSolutionsOvercomingSouthInternationalPopulationTraditionalMediumsRepublicElsewhereSouth AfricaSyriaSpainKoreaStep UpInternational CommunityColombiaDonorsSudanSouth Korea
Author:Antonio Guterres
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“I am honoured to be asked to take on this role, especially as it comes at such an integral time for our relationship with South Africa and the African continent. There shall be many new challenges and opportunities ahead and I look forward to embracing them with great anticipation [on becoming the UK's high commissioner to South Africa]”

LooksOpportunityChallengesRolesBecomingSouthAnticipationOur RelationshipContinentsSouth AfricaNew ChallengesCommissionersAfrican ContinentOpportunities And Challenges
Author:Paul Boateng
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“The calm and tolerant atmosphere that prevailed during the elections depicts the type of South Africa we can build. It set the tone for the future. We might have our differences, but we are one people with a common destiny in our rich variety of culture, race and tradition.”

PeopleMightCultureChangeDifferencesCommonRaceDestinyRichTypeTraditionElectionSouthCalmVarietyAtmosphereToneSouth Africa
Book:Nelson Mandela By Himself: The Authorised Book of Quotations
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“The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid. In Washington, D.C., our nation’s capitol, it is estimated that three out of four young black men (and nearly all those in the poorest neighborhoods) can expect to serve time in prison.”

MenStatesYoungThreeNationsBlackUnitedUnited StatesFourPrisonSouthPopulationHeightNeighborhoodSouth AfricaPercentagesPoorestApartheidCapitolJim CrowMass Incarceration
Book:The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
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“No other country in the world imprisons so many of its racial or ethnic minorities. The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid”

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Book:The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
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“As to whether Marcos is gay: Marcos is gay in San Francisco, black in South Africa, an Asian in Europe, a Chicano in San Ysidro, an anarchist in Spain, a Palestinian in Israel, a Mayan Indian in the streets of San Cristobal, a Jew in Germany, a Gypsy in Poland, a Mohawk in Quebec, a pacifist in Bosnia, a single woman on the Metro at 10pm, a peasant without land, a gang member in the slums, an unemployed worker, an unhappy student and, of course, a Zapatista in the mountains.”

CoursesBlackStreetsLandStudentsGayMountainMembersEuropeSouthWorkersJewIsraelUnhappyIndianGermanyPalestinianSouth AfricaSpainGangAsianSan FranciscoPeasantsAnarchistUnemployedGypsyPolandPacifistSlumsMarcosQuebecSingle WomenBosniaGang MembersMetroMohawks
Author:Subcomandante Marcos
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“If all the white people who claim they don't hate us would ever get together and do something to the whites who claim they hate us, we'd see some action. Talk is cheap, if white people didn't want to have a South African situation ... there'd be none. If white people in America didn't want segregation, there'd be none ... it is the man who allows him to lynch who is never seen.”

PeopleIfsMenWantActionTogetherAmericaHateWhiteSituationHe ManClaimsSouthSouth AfricaSegregationGet TogetherDon't HateTalk Is Cheap
Author:Malcolm X
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“In South Africa, they dig for diamonds. Tons of earth are moved to find a little pebble not as large as a little fingernail. The miners are looking for the diamonds, not the dirt. They are willing to lift all the dirt in order to find the jewels. In daily life, people forget this principle and become pessimists because there is more dirt than diamonds. When trouble comes, don’t be frightened by the negatives. Look for the positives and dig them out. They are so valuable it doesn't matter if you have to handle tons of dirt.”

PeopleIfsLooksLittlesMatterEarthOrderForgetPrinciplesTroubleWillingMovedSouthValuableHandleLiftsDaily LifeFrightenedDiamondSouth AfricaDirtJewelsPessimistPebblesMinersFingernails
Author:Robert Ringer
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“If Nature here wishes to make a mountain, she runs a range for five hundred miles; if a plain, she levels eighty; if a rock, she tilts five thousand feet of strata on end; our skies are higher and more intensely blue; our waves larger than others; our rivers fiercer. There is nothing measured, small nor petty in South Africa.”

IfsEndsRunningWishLevelsFiveFeetSkyRocksHigherThousandMountainHundredRiversBlueSouthWaveMilesRangeSouth AfricaPettyEightyTilt
Author:Olive Schreiner
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“Sandy deWitt at TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris in Johannesburg, South Africa, taught me to make a decision and stick with it. Every day we're faced with reasons why we shouldn't do good work: it's too scary, too hard to pull off, there's no time, no money, etc. You have to be brave and commit to your choices in the face of adversity. If you waver, nothing will turn out the way you imagined it.”

IfsWayHardReasonFacesTurnsChoicesDecisionTaughtAdversityBraveSticksSouthScaryCommitReason WhyEtcWorking ItSouth AfricaGood WorkBe BraveHuntsNo MoneySandyLesson LearnedFacing AdversityJohannesburg
Author:Melissa Sue Anderson
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“As we mourn President Mandela’s passing we must ask ourselves the fundamental question - what shall we do to respond to the tasks of building a democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous South Africa, a people-centred society free of hunger, poverty, disease and inequality, as well as Africa’s renaissance, to whose attainment President Nelson Mandela dedicated his whole life?”

PeopleWellsWholeAsksPresidentPovertyBuildingDiseaseTasksFundamentalsDemocraticSouthHungerWhole LifePassingPassingsInequalityDedicatedSouth AfricaProsperousMournAttainmentRenaissanceSexistNelsonHunger PovertyMandela S
Author:Thabo Mbeki
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“My grandfather was a member of Parliament for 40 years. Obviously we're talking here South Africa, a whites only parliament. I grew up in a family that was very involved with the legal battles against apartheid—the great treason trials in the 1950s and early '60s, and later with the legal resources center that my mother founded. My father was involved with a number of very prominent cases that had political aspects to them, whether it was the inquest into the Sharpeville Massacre, the death of Steve Biko, or one of the trials of Nelson Mandela.”

YearsPoliticalMotherFatherNumbersTalkingCasesGrewInvolvedBattleMembersGrew UpResourcesAspectSouthTrialsGrandfatherSouth AfricaParliamentMy GrandfatherTreasonApartheidProminentNelsonMassacresMembers Of ParliamentBiko
Author:William Kentridge
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