African Quotes

Quotes from African writers, leaders and thinkers — cited to a published source wherever one is known. 269 in the archive.

• It’s not where you start but how high you aim that matters for success.South Africa
• We have a vision of South Africa in which black and white shall live and work together as equals in conditions of peace and prosperity.South Africa
• Whether you're a farmer, builder or engineer, the opportunities are equal: Just add a little innovation.Zimbabwe
• The oral literature of the African people is their unwritten Bible. This religious wisdom is found in African idioms, wise sayings, legends, myths, stories, proverbs and oral history.
• Our maturity will be judged by how well we are able to agree to disagree and yet continue to love one another, to care for one another, and cherish one another and seek the greater good of the other.South Africa
• Our success educationally, industrially and politically is based upon the protection of a nation founded by ourselves. And the nation can be nowhere else but in Africa.Jamaica
• In Egypt today most people are concerned with getting bread to eat. Only some of the educated understand how democracy works.Egypt
• People from different parts of the world can respond to the same story if it says something to them about their own history and their own experience.Nigeria
• There are so many men and women who hold no distinctive positions but whose contribution towards the development of society has been enormous.South Africa
• People respond in accordance to how you relate to them. If you approach them on the basis of violence, that's how they'll react. But if you say, 'We want peace, we want stability,' we can then do a lot of things that will contribute towards the progress of our society.South Africa
• You are damned and praised, or encouraged or discouraged by those who listen to you, and those who come to applaud you. And to me, those people are very important.South Africa
• Let's face it - think of Africa, and the first images that come to mind are of war, poverty, famine and flies. How many of us really know anything at all about the truly great ancient African civilizations, which in their day, were just as splendid and glorious as any on the face of the earth?.United States
• We pledge ourselves to liberate all our people from the continuing bondage of poverty, deprivation, suffering, gender and other discrimination.South Africa
• Power is domination, control, and therefore a very selective form of truth which is a lie.Nigeria
• When the rat race threatens to overwhelm me, I do pose for a moment to think of the Cistercian Monks in the hills of Mbengwi. Then a simple prayer pops to mind, and I feel much better with myself and with the world around me.Cameroon
• The problem with gender is that it prescribes how we should be rather than recognizing how we are. Imagine how much happier we would be, how much freer to be our true individual selves, if we didn’t have the weight of gender expectations.Nigeria
• We need to promote development that does not destroy our environment.Kenya
• I am working to make sure we don't only protect the environment, we also improve governance.Kenya
• Proverbs are a rich source of African Religion and philosophy. They contain and point to a deep spirituality, as well as a theological and philosophical insights. In this case, they form a bridge between traditional African religiosity and biblical teaching.
• Proverbs are the palm oil with which words are eaten.Nigeria
• You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.Egypt
• Given the scale of trauma caused by the genocide, Rwanda has indicated that however thin the hope of a community can be, a hero always emerges. Although no one can dare claim that it is now a perfect state, and that no more work is needed, Rwanda has risen from the ashes as a model or truth and reconciliation.Nigeria
• In a few decades, the relationship between the environment, resources and conflict may seem almost as obvious as the connection we see today between human rights, democracy and peace.Kenya
• To the African, religion is like the skin that you carry along with you wherever you are, not like the cloth that you wear now and discard the next moment.Ghana