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F. W. de Klerk Quotes
1936–2021 South Africa
Frederik Willem de Klerk (18 March 1936 – 11 November 2021) was a South African politician who served as State President of South Africa from 1989 to 1994 and as Deputy President from 1994 to 1996. As South Africa's last head of state from the era of white-minority rule, he and his government dismantled the apartheid system and introduced universal suffrage.
South Africa Lawyers Nobel laureates Also known as: De Klerk, F.W. de Klerk, FW De Klerk, FW De klerk, FW de Klerk, FW de klerk
Random F. W. de Klerk quote
18 quotes
We cannot build the future on injustice.
We're not doing what we do because of sanctions. We're doing what we do because we believe it is right.
I have great sympathy with America. It's very, it's very tough to be the only remaining superpower in the world.
Here at the crossroads of our history, we need to turn our backs on the past.
If we dwell on real or imagined sins of the past, we shall never be able to find one another in the present, nor shall we be able to work together on building the future.
Racism is a part of a problem, a world problem, which has to be overcome.
The Last Trek: A New Beginning, C-Span (1999)
I prefer to live in South Africa because it's a wonderful country; because I've been there for 300 years.
The Last Trek: A New Beginning, C-Span (1999)
I'm certain about my decision [to divorce you]. Stop hoping.
We have failed to bring justice. We cannot build the future on injustice.
The Last Trek: A New Beginning, C-Span (1999)
I'm a Christian. I'm a South African. I'm an Afrikaner. I'm a lawyer. I love my country, and I think that this country has a great future. In that sense of the word, I`m a practical idealist.
Uri Friedman: Why did the South African government, in the mid-1970s, decide to embark on a nuclear-weapons program?
[A]t the crossroads of our history, we need to turn our backs on the past.
I apologize in my capacity as leader of the NP to the millions who suffered wrenching disruption of forced removals; who suffered the shame of being arrested for pass law offences; who over the decades suffered the indignities and humiliation of racial discrimination.
It is very significant that there has never been a war between genuine and universal democracies. There have been countless wars between totalitarian and authoritarian states. There have been wars between democracies and dictatorships - most often in defense of democratic values or in response to aggression.
[M]y ideal is that what we should do is to, to also rise above that and to achieve true non-racialism.
The Last Trek: A New Beginning, C-Span (1999)
Nigeria, it's a beautiful country with a great potential and I believe that in that part of the continent, Nigeria, once it sorts out its own problems, have a crucial role to play, like South Africa has in the more southern part of our continent.
The Last Trek: A New Beginning, C-Span (1999)
There are powers that are trying to manipulate our country's history by trying to portray it as dark, suppressive and unfair... Yes, we have made mistakes. Yes, we have often sinned and we don't deny this. But that we were evil, malignant and mean–to that we say "no"!
If our old policy, which was so unpopular in many circles, could work, then we would have surely clung to it. But as responsible leaders charged with the government of the country, we came to the conclusion that the policy we had planned could simply not work.
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