Noteable Quotes

DO we compromise quality – giving the wrong impression to donors at the expense of reality. – Congress of Democrats MP, Elma Dienda, tabling a motion on exam results in the National Assembly

OF course, I knew Thabo from years ago. But by the time he got to be president, he seemed to have lost complete touch with reality.’ – Businessman Douw Steyn on former South African president Thabo Mbeki’s turning down his offer of R1 billion to help fight crime, quoted in the Sunday Independent.THEY should be praising. I think it’s disgusting. It makes me sick. You can’t be sentimental, you have to be serious. I’ve seen it. It’s quick. The bullet goes straight through the brain and the whale dies in a few seconds. But they [the public] get hysterical and start acting like prima donnas and throw themselves on the beach and have to be carried away by the police. – Nan Rice, head of the Dolphin Action and Protection group, defending a decision to shoot several whales who beached themselves in Kommetjie in the Cape recentlyI DON’T know what you are talking about. I have no deals with the SABC. It’s shocking news. We will discuss it with the family. – Nelson Mandela’s grandson Mandla quoted in The Star on a report that he sold the TV rights to the former president’s funeral for R3 millionIF they had held on as they were told to do from the start, they wouldn’t have got injured. – Maxine Mahonga, owner of Aerial Displays, following the hot air balloon’s near-crash at Montecasino in JohannesburgTHE Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcorn)(sic) is also threatening to make the country’s jails unmanageable. Heaven forbid. The last thing we need is a situation where prisoners start doing drugs, joining gangs, sodomising new inmates and stabbing each other with sharpened spoons. The chaos would be unthinkable. – SA Sunday Times columnist Ben TrovatoI AM absolutely shocked at Huisgenoot’s audacity to reveal Joost’s money matters… I am not buying Huisgenoot again, I would rather read the Bible. – Beeld reader Thea van Rooyen in a reader’s letter, on a magazine article about former Springbok Joost van der Westhuizen’s financial situation.WE’RE not breaking any rules. We wanted a good quality car that could be used in rural areas. – SA Agriculture department spokesman Sipho Thangekwayo explaining to The Star why Gauteng MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko bought a Mercedes Benz 4×4 worth nearly R1 million only to have it stolen.DO you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility. – St Augustine (354-430)From the history booksNO government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programmes, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth! – Ronald Reagan, US president from 1981-89. Reagan died on June 5 2004, from Alzheimer’s disease.SERVICE is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life, and not something you do in your spare time. – Marian Wright Edelman, first African-American woman to be admitted to the Mississippi Bar, founder of the Children’s Defence Fund was born on June 6 1939.I AM certainly an ‘ought’ and not a ‘must. – Edward Morgan Forster, British novelist who wrote ‘A Passage to India’ and other works, died on June 7 1970