Top 204 quotes by Thabo Mbeki

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Thabo Mbeki quote I am an African. I owe my b...

I am an African. I owe my being to the hills and the valleys, the mountains and the glades, the rivers, the deserts, the trees, the flowers, the seas and the ever-changing seasons that define the face of our native land.
Thabo Mbeki

Sea , Flower , Land

409

Thabo Mbeki quote Gloom and despondency have ...

Gloom and despondency have never defeated adversity. Trying times need courage and resilience. Our strength as a people is not tested during the best of times.
Thabo Mbeki

People , Adversity , Resilience

409

Thabo Mbeki quote Our experience over the las...

Our experience over the last 20 years has shown that indeed people must themselves become their own liberators. You cannot wait for somebody else to come and rescue you.
Thabo Mbeki

Years , People , Waiting

275

Thabo Mbeki quote We should never become desp...

We should never become despondent because the weather is bad, nor should we turn triumphalist because the sun shines.
Thabo Mbeki

Weather , Sun , Shining

213

Thabo Mbeki quote As Africans, we need to sha...

As Africans, we need to share common recognition that all of us stand to lose if we fail to transform our continent.
Thabo Mbeki

Needs , Recognition , Common

204

Thabo Mbeki quote When will the day come that...

When will the day come that our dignity will be fully restored, when the purpose of our lives will no longer be merely to survive until the sun rises tomorrow!
Thabo Mbeki

Purpose , Sun , Dignity

196

Thabo Mbeki quote Does HIV cause AIDS? Can a ...

Does HIV cause AIDS? Can a virus cause a syndrome? How? It can't, because a syndrome is a group of diseases resulting from acquired immune deficiency.
Thabo Mbeki

Groups , Doe , Viruses

142

Thabo Mbeki quote A global human society, cha...

A global human society, characterised by islands of wealth, surrounded by a sea of poverty, is unsustainable
Thabo Mbeki

Sea , Future , Islands

141

Thabo Mbeki quote None dare challenge me when...

None dare challenge me when i say i am an Afrikan.
Thabo Mbeki

Thabo Mbeki (1998). “Africa: the time has come : selected speeches”

Challenges , Dare

137

Thabo Mbeki quote I don't imagine Heads of Go...

I don't imagine Heads of Government would ever be able to say I'm not an economist therefore I can't take decisions on matters of the economy; I'm not a soldier I can't take decisions on matters of defence; I'm not an educationist so I can't take decisions about education.
Thabo Mbeki

Government , Soldier , Decision

137

Thabo Mbeki quote Many of our own people here...

Many of our own people here in this country do not ask about computers, telephones and television sets. They ask - when will we get a road to our village.
Thabo Mbeki

Country , People , Television

133

Read a textbook. It will tell you. These are the things for instance on the African continent that will contribute to immune deficiency, various tropical diseases because of poor infrastructure, general levels of poverty don’t get treated. Syphilis untreated or not properly treated, which as it happens is a big problem as I hear, gets treated, the symptoms disappear but in fact… it … that impacts on the immune system. You’ve got to deal with these things.
Thabo Mbeki

Interview with Lionel Barber, www.ft.com. April 3, 2007. Source

Poverty , Impact , Syphilis

117

Thabo Mbeki quote The problem is not a lack o...

The problem is not a lack of understanding of what we are saying and doing; the problem is difference of opinion about what to do.
Thabo Mbeki

SABC TV2 Interview, oldgov.gcis.gov.za. February 16, 2003. Source

Differences , Understanding , Opinion

115

Thabo Mbeki quote We do not accept that human...

We do not accept that human society should be constructed on the basis of a savage principle of the survival of the fittest
Thabo Mbeki

Survival , Vision , Future

102

You cannot just depend on the market, because the market will say: China needs oil; China needs coal; China needs whatever, and Africa has got all these things in abundance. And we go there and get them, and the more we develop the Chinese economy, the larger the manufacturing is, the more we need global markets - sell it to the Africans which indeed might very well destroy whatever infant industries are trying to develop on the continent. That is what the market would do.
Thabo Mbeki

Interview with Lionel Barber and Alec Russell, www.ft.com. April 3, 2007. Source

Chinese , Trying , Oil

I think that probably the most important thing about our education was that it taught us to question even those things we thought we knew.
Thabo Mbeki

Thinking , Important , Taught Us