Top 24 Quotes & Sayings by Helen Suzman

Explore popular quotes and sayings by a South African politician Helen Suzman.
Last updated on September 30, 2024.
Helen Suzman

Helen Suzman, OMSG, DBE was a South African anti-apartheid activist and politician. She represented a series of liberal and centre-left opposition parties during her 36-year tenure in the whites-only, National Party-controlled House of Assembly of South Africa at the height of apartheid.

Debate is almost non-existent and no one is apparently accountable to anybody apart from their political party bosses. It is bad news for democracy in this country.
All these stories are grist to the mill of the government because they build up a very useful war psychosis.
Tool of Communist agitators... it's really a joke, isn't it? Because, quite clearly, we are a party of real moderates. It just shows how little they understand. — © Helen Suzman
Tool of Communist agitators... it's really a joke, isn't it? Because, quite clearly, we are a party of real moderates. It just shows how little they understand.
I don't think we will ever go the way of Zimbabwe, but people are concerned.
I am provocative, and I admit this. It isn't as if I'm only on the receiving end, a poor, frail little creature. I can be thoroughly nasty when I get going, and I don't pull my punches.
This country is armed to the teeth, and none of these African states could begin to attack South Africa.
I am hopeful about any future for whites in this country, but not entirely optimistic.
The employment laws are completely unrealistic. You cannot overcome that in only 10 years. It will take at least another generation before young people are properly qualified.
It is the answers, not the questions, that are embarrassing.
I stand for simple justice, equal opportunity and human rights. The indispensable elements in a democratic society - and well worth fighting for.
I represent all the enlightened people in this country, and that's a fine thing to be able to do. It infuriates my opponents when I say this, but it is true.
For all my criticisms of the current system, it doesn't mean that I would like to return to the old one.
My own electorate, which I represented for 36 years as an anti-apartheid politician, had a considerable number of Jewish voters supporting me throughout my career.
I can say unequivocally that the boycott does not work. It's never complete enough to have impact unless it's backed by force, and I don't think anybody in America seriously proposes that.
That's my life in there. It would never be possible today to ask as many questions as I did.
I used to be a fan of proportional representation, but I am not at all now I have seen it in action.
It is increasingly hard for young white people to find jobs, and I can understand why white parents are worried about the future.
[To the South African parliament:] I do not know why we equate - and with the examples before us - a white skin with civilization.
Perhaps the one comforting thought I got out of this whole disgusting affair was that over the years when the government was tapping my telephone, it must certainly have heard some home truths from me about themselves, often couched in good Anglo-Saxon terms.
The immediate present belongs to the extremists, but the future belongs to the moderates. — © Helen Suzman
The immediate present belongs to the extremists, but the future belongs to the moderates.
Sometimes I manage to get conditions alleviated, often not.
When you teach, you learn." "And I really don't go for religions of any kind. ...I reject them all....There were principles I thought were very important.
When you teach, you learn.
It is not my questions that embarrass South Africa – it is your answers.
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