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The grand success of the British Empire depends not on its having followed any constitutional precedent of the past but on having met a new situation in history with a creation in law; and as a matter of fact the new constitutional system grew empirically and organically out of the practical necessities of the colonial situation.

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More quotes by Jan Smuts

It is the cleanest, neatest, most sudden and spectacular victory of the war, and in size is quite comparable to the German defeat before Stalingrad.

We do not want new orders. What the world wants is an old order of 2,000 years ago – the order of the man of Galilee.

History writes the word 'Reconciliation' over all her quarrels.

Smuts to Alfred Milner (1905)

If a nation does not want a monarchy, change the nation’s mind. If a nation does not need a monarchy, change the nation’s needs.

Just as we preach a "black peril" so they will begin to speak of a "white peril" and of the hostility the white men have toward them.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Jan Smuts (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.