“History, like beauty, depends largely on the beholder, so when you read that, for example, David Livingstone discovered the Victoria Falls, you might be forgiven for thinking that there was nobody around the Falls until Livingstone arrived on the scene.”
From his 1981 speech “Fortieth Anniversary of the Republic?”, as published in Hope and Suffering: Sermons and Speeches, November 1984
“Freedom and liberty lose out by default because good people are not vigilant”
From Hope and Suffering: Sermons and Speeches, published November 1984.
“I am a leader by default, only because nature does not allow a vacuum.”
Christian Science Monitor, 20 December 1984.
“For goodness sake, will they hear, will white people hear what we are trying to say? Please, all we are asking you to do is recognise that we are humans too.”
New York Times, 3 January 1985.
“I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of human rights”
Today, NBC, 9 January 1985.
“We who advocate peace are becoming an irrelevance when we speak peace. The government speaks rubber bullets, live bullets, tear gas, police dogs, detention, and death”
As quoted in Sunday Times Magazine UK, 8 June 1986.
“At home in South Africa I have sometimes said in big meetings where you have black and white together: ‘Raise your hands!’ Then I have said: ‘Move your hands,’ and I’ve said ‘Look at your hands – different colors representing different people. You are the Rainbow People of God.'”
Sermon delivered in Tromsö, Norway, 5 December 1991
“Without forgiveness there can be no future for a relationship between individuals or within and between nations”
“It was relatively easy, we now realize, to categorize countries and nations. You knew who your enemies were and whom you could count on as collaborators and friends. And even more importantly, you had ready-made scapegoats to take the blame when things were going wrong.”
From a speech, “Freedom and Tolerance”, made to the Cape Town Press Club, June 1995.
“There are different kinds of justice. Retributive justice is largely Western. The African understanding is far more restorative – not so much to punish as to redress or restore a balance that has been knocked askew.”
From “Recovering from Apartheid”, in The New Yorker, 18 November 1996.
“Resentment and anger are bad for your blood pressure and your digestion.”
From “Truth and reconciliation”, BBC Focus on Africa magazine, January-March 2000, p53.
“Without forgiveness there can be no future for a relationship between individuals or within and between nations.”
From “Truth and reconciliation”, BBC Focus on Africa magazine, January-March 2000, p53.
“South Africa, so utterly improbably, is a beacon of hope in a dark and troubled world.”
From “Truth and reconciliation”, BBC Focus on Africa magazine, January-March 2000, p53.
– By SA History
