Quotes by South African Authors - Page 33

Trials are a measure of your faith, so be courageous when going through trials in life.
Gift Gugu Mona
A performance does not capture or communicate with the mood and feelings of that very moment.
Unarine Ramaru
This was true, she knew. Being involved with him gave her the privileged position of knowing him intimately. There were nights when he would wake up sweating, the nightmares returning out of the blue after a peaceful period sometimes weeks long. Growing up in the middle of a fierce civil war could indelibly mark a child. To Mykl, birthdays were always just another year under the belt, where the only reason to celebrate was that you weren’t dead yet. She took his hand, squeezed it tight and led him inside.
Christina Engela
Life demands more thinking than remembering.
Mokokoma Mokhonoana
Time…Once it’s gone, it belongs to the past.We do not hold on to the now, andWe do not treasure the future…We keep receiving this present, but we never open and cherish it until it is too late.Until it comes no more.
Michelle Horst
If you're always following the crowd, you will never truly know who you are. Walk your own path.
Julian Pencilliah
I would like to say to the men and women of the generations which will come after us: you will look back at us with astonishment. You will wonder at passionate struggles that accomplished so little, at the, to you, obvious paths to attain our ends which we did not take. At the intolerable evils before which it will seem to you we sat down passive. At the great truths staring us in the face which we failed to see, at the great truths we grasped at but could not get our fingers quite 'round. You will marvel at the labour that ended in so little. But what you will never know that it was how we were thinking of you and for you that we struggled as we did and accomplished the little that we have done. That it was in the thought of your larger realization and fuller life that we have found consolation for the futilities of our own. All I aspire to be and was not, comforts me.
Olive Schreiner
We tell people to follow their dreams, but you can only dream of what you can imagine, and, depending on where you come from, your imagination can be quite limited.
Trevor Noah
Nothing factual that I write or say will be as truthful as my fiction.
Nadine Gordimer
They set about making people so unhappy and isolated and when they crawl into a hole and pull it in after them, they have the nerve to call homosexuality a 'suicidal lifestyle'. And yet they do this - and deny that any gay or trans person could ever be a 'true' Christian. As if THEY are.
Christina Engela
When you read without an open mind, you're already filtering ideas and intended message. Selective reading contributes to wilful ignorance.
Unarine Ramaru
Some kids are both or neitherAnd don't want to have to choose, either.
Christina Engela
I am not lucky, but I am favoured because luck runs out; but God's favour will abide with me forever.
Gugu Mona
To be better equipped for the tests that the year will bring — read a textbook. To prepare for the tests that life will bring — read a book.
Mokokoma Mokhonoana
Everybody laughed for a long time, for it was the kind of joke that seemed to grow on you. You would laugh and eventually stop. But after a few minutes you would think of the joke again, and you would burst out laughing all over again.
Zakes Mda
Today is the best time to do what you couldn't do yesterday, because tomorrow might be too late.
Gift Gugu Mona
It’s been said that legends are those who shape change into greatness shaping change is one of the hallmarks of genius.
Julian Pencilliah
Intelligence is a way of thinking, not a choice of words.
Mokokoma Mokhonoana
I have always found that actively lovingsaves one from a morbid preoccupationwith the shortcomings of society.
Alan Paton
With regards to getting laid and getting AIDS: Being interesting can be an interesting guy’s downfall.
Mokokoma Mokhonoana
You will have to defy the odds, for you to be extraordinary.
Gift Gugu Mona
Each of us has been designed for one of two immortal functions, as either a storyteller or as a cross-legged listener to tales of wonder, love, and daring. When we cease to tell or listen, then we no longer exist as a people.
Bryce Courtenay
Dominating others is not equality.
Christina Engela
There are times when we find ourselves pitching downwards, out of control. Yet God is always nearby...
Shirley Corder
It' is for objects, not people.
Christina Engela
Some lessons are learnt the hard way, but worth it.
Gift Gugu Mona
It is interesting indeed that some people think they are right to force others into believing what they believe.
Christina Engela
We are slaves whose masters are dead. For we are mostly controlled by doctrines which were established centuries heretofore.
Mokokoma Mokhonoana
Huge biceps are an unattractive-uneducated-underpaid man's last attempt to be seen as worthy of dating, or, sleeping with.
Mokokoma Mokhonoana
Peace is a very powerful approach than war, choose peace when solving any problem in the world.
Gift Gugu Mona
You learn to be resilient, to survive when you know you are capable of making worthy contribution to the world; you fight it when you have nothing to lose and so much to gain.
Mala Naidoo
Imagine, if you will:A bright yellow star lit the darkness somewhere in deep space, accompanied by its rather dysfunctional family of nine deceptively ordinary-looking planets. During its enormously long lifetime many beings had named it from the far ends of distant telescopes, including it into numerous star clusters and constellations as they were perceived from their vantage points. Once, or maybe twice, creatures simply looked up into their own skies to name it from their own now long dead and deserted worlds. In more recent times, beings from a world that orbited a different sun far away gave it a name too – creatures that called themselves Human, who travelled here and settled on one of its inner planets. The planet they chose to make a new home on? They called that Deanna. They called the star Ramalama.
Christina Engela
A murderer is a killer without a uniform.
Mokokoma Mokhonoana
School forces unique individuals to think, act, and, look alike.
Mokokoma Mokhonoana
[The official prosecutors] ... were more vengeful on behalf of our injuries than I myself could ever be.
Sir Laurens van der Post
Love is the only energy I’ve ever used as a writer. I’ve never written out of anger, although anger has informed love.
Athol Fugard
South Africa is the only country where an overwhelming majority in complete political control is apparently so threatened by a tiny minority that they need racist affirmative action policies to protect the majority by legislatively excluding the minority totally from the job market.
Christina Engela
Here is the path to the higher life: down, lower down! Just as water always seeks and fills the lowest place, so the moment God finds men abased and empty, His glory and power flow in to exalt and to bless.
Andrew Murray
Where would tourism be without a little luxury and a taste of night life? There were several cities on Deanna, all moderate in size, but the largest was the capital, Atro City. For the connoisseur of fast-foods, Albrechts’ famous hotdogs and coldcats were sold fresh from his stall (Albrecht’s Takeaways) on Lupini Square. For the sake of his own mental health he had temporarily removed Hot Stuff Blend from the menu. The city was home to Atro City University, which taught everything from algebra and make-up application to advanced stamp collecting; and it was also home to the planet-famous bounty hunter – Beck the Badfeller. Beck was a legend in his own lifetime. If Deanna had any folklore, then Beck the Badfeller was one of its main features. He was the local version of Robin Hood, the Davy Crockett of Deanna. The Local rumor mill had it he was so good he could find the missing day in a leap year. Once, so the story goes, he even found a missing sock.
Christina Engela
It is not easy to let go, but when you do; not only do you realize the strength that lies within you, you also create an opportunity to see God perform the best of miracles in your life.
Gugu Mona
The hard part of ReThinking, is most people don't usually do much normal REAL thinking anyway. They live their lives on automatic reaction.
Tony Dovale
The dogs left with us and we walked. I sobbed the whole way home, still heartbroken. My mom had no time for my whining.“Why are you crying?!”“Because Fufi loves another boy.”“So? Why would that hurt you? It didn’t cost you anything. Fufi’s here. She still loves you. She’s still your dog. So get over it.”Fufi was my first heartbreak. No one has ever betrayed me more than Fufi. It was a valuable lesson to me. The hard thing was understanding that Fufi wasn’t cheating on me with another boy. She was merely living her life to the fullest. Until I knew that she was going out on her own during the day, her other relationship hadn’t affected me at all. Fufi had no malicious intent.I believed that Fufi was my dog, but of course that wasn’t true. Fufi was a dog. I was a boy. We got along well. She happened to live in my house. That experience shaped what I’ve felt about relationships for the rest of my life: You do not own the thing that you love. I was lucky to learn that lesson at such a young age. I have so many friends who still, as adults, wrestle with feelings of betrayal. They’ll come to me angry and crying and talking about how they’ve been cheated on and lied to, and I feel for them. I understand what they’re going through. I sit with them and buy them a drink and I say, “Friend, let me tell you the story of Fufi.
Trevor Noah
Humility is simply the disposition which prepares the soul for living on trust.
Andrew Murray
The creative act is not pure.
Nadine Gordimer
Every bird of prey looks over its shoulder before it goes in for the kill, even a hawk. Even they know to watch their backs – every single one but an eagle. It’s fearless.
Michelle Horst
Forgiveness is the best way to disempower an enemy.
Gugu Mona
Purpose discovery is a journey and not an event.
D.S Mashego
Impossible is a perception based upon a limiting mental illusion. Possible is the belief in the potential of unseen possibility,
Tony Dovale
Sometimes you will do good things and not get an acknowledgement for it. Don't let that dishearten you, the world is a better place with your good deeds.
Gift Gugu Mona
If being seen as worthy of employing is the best that school does for the schooled, then school is overrated.
Mokokoma Mokhonoana
The favour of God forfeits the failure of men.
Gift Gugu Mona
Well… er -”“Expecting a rescue is beyond hope under the circumstances!” Sam Barthoff, Mayor of Atro City, interrupted grimly, throwing up his hands in hopelessness. “Hopeless!
Christina Engela
Once upon a time, loss of love, rejection, weakness and loss of territory all meant death. Now it just feels that way.
Julian Short
A science is any discipline in which the fool of this generation can go beyond the point reached by the genius of the last generation.
Max Gluckman
Nelson Mandela once said, 'If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.' He was so right. When you make the effort to speak someone else's language, even if it's just basic phrases here and there, you are saying to them, 'I understand that you have a culture and identity that exists beyond me. I see you as a human being
Trevor Noah
Some kid asked what a dilemma is. And I replied: When a starving man has to choose between a plate of food, and, a roll of toilet paper.
Mokokoma Mokhonoana
Behind these eyesthere is a girl trapped withinher pain – a girl feeling all the emotionsof anger and sadness.She’s fighting for a way out.” (In her eyes, p. 39)
Chimnese Davids
Learning from others is primary to your success, even doctors seek advice from specialists.
Unarine Ramaru
Patriotism is the narcissism of countries.
Mokokoma Mokhonoana
You are privileged if you know that there is God, the only creator of Heaven and Earth because not everyone gets to understand that whist still alive.
Gugu Mona