Ian Smith Rhodesia Quotes

I would say colonialism is a wonderful thing. It spread civilization to Africa. Before it they had no written language, no wheel as we know it, no schools, no hospitals, not even normal clothing.

From the mid-1970s, Christian organizations would begin to play a more prominent role in international politics, supporting causes associated with America’s resurgent nationalist right. Some worked with the American Security Council to oppose disarmament treaties and defend Ian Smith’s white government in Rhodesia.

One of the most sacred principles of Western Christian civilisation was the independence of an impartial judiciary

Those who have not made the grade must stop looking for a scapegoat, and look to themselves

A lesson which people usually learn early in life is that it is easier to create a problem than to solve it.

Strong and independent judges who have the courage of their convictions are an essential ingredient of our civilisation.

In any case, the desirability of decentralisation of government in a country where there are so many different peoples, tribes with different languages, even nations, is so obvious that it was difficult to credit that any intelligent assessment could oppose the concept, unless, of course, the intention was to concentrate power in the hands of a dictator.

Human nature does tend to promote eternal optimism

I always find it reassuring to be associated with people who have the courage of their convictions. It has the tonic effect of restoring one’s confidence in one’s fellow-men.

When one is part of a small band of people trying to make a stand on principle, surrounded by enemies conniving to sabotage your case, one derives satisfaction from the justice of one’s cause and the conviction that history will prove its validity. It is indeed a privilege to be associated with such an occasion, something unknown to those who grovel in the troughs of appeasement and compromise.

any suggestion of shirking responsibility must be resisted

There are few things more satisfying than being able to make a contribution to the education of our children.

People who live with nature get up, and get out. If it is summer you get moving and do as much as you can before the scorching sun starts beating down on your back. After the sun has moved overhead on its way north, you know that winter will not be far away, so it is time to prepare the grain bins for the incoming crop, and pile up the stack of wood for the winter fires. Conversely, when the sun starts moving southwards, and the weather begins to warm up, it is time to cut some thatching grass to repair the roofs, and cart the manure to the lands before the rains come. Calendars and clocks do not help with these things.

people of character and consequence do not lightly jettison their culture.

It is worth repeating: great nations are built on the foundation of great families. There was also the advantage of being part of a small rural community, where people were interested in one another, and prepared to lend each other a helping hand. That communal spirit, turning out to support your local team, making your contribution to the social life of the community, is the bedrock of civilised life.

How could any man of principle turn a deaf ear to an appeal to accept his responsibility?

All land requires dedicated people who believe in that well-known maxim that we do not inherit our land from our fathers, we borrow it from our great-great-grandchildren, and each generation is honour-bound to pass it on in better condition that it was in when received.

Having a gun pointed at one’s head leaves no room for equivocation… Under those circumstances, a pragmatist faces up to the situation and plans the best means of coping with it.

The democratic system of government with elections bringing different parties into power adds confusion and destabilisation. A Conservative government by nature believes in maintaining the status quo as far as possible, and that any change should be evolutionary. A socialist government believes in bigger and quicker change, of a revolutionary nature, necessary to make up for lost time, because socialism is a comparatively new philosophy.

when governments are dealing with their own local affairs, they think twice and take great care to ensure that they are not acting against popular opinion and thus losing votes. But when they are dealing with affairs which affect the lives of people in another country, that is different.

when outsiders attack a country and their government, there is a natural tendency for the people to unite.

Often during the heat of political argument the participants resort to strong, sometimes violent language. It is important that we do not allow resentment and grudges to linger on after the occasion. As in a game of rugby, you tackle your best friends as hard as anyone else, but once the game is over you are friends again.

I am one of those who has always been able to make a decision after weighing up the evidence before me. I often said to my cabinet colleagues that I would rather they made ten decisions, one of which was a mistake, than that they made no mistakes because they made no decisions. Once you have decided that a decision is right, in the interests of your country, then the function of a leader is to lead and sell it to the people. So often the best medicine is unpalatable, and if you insist on soliciting support from the people, more often than not you will never succeed in administering the cure.

Even if ninety-nine percent of the people are moderate and reasonable, it is that other one percent who will be in the front line of any political battle.

The most important thing about negotiations is to secure for yourself a situation where you talk from strength, as opposed to a defensive position where you may have to retreat to an inferior situation.

In reality, colonialism was the spread of Western Christian civilisation, with its commitment to education, health, justice and economic advancement, into areas which were truly ‘darkest Africa’. The people in these areas of sub-Saharan Africa had never seen a white man, had no written language, no medical facilities, and no currency, so barter was their only means of trade… The development and advancement of the people of sub-Saharan Africa has been remarkable, and today they enjoy a standard of living which is much higher than that of a number of other Third World countries; the credit for this is due to colonialism. But it is sad to record that they have been going downhill over the past few decades, since the ending of colonialism. Not only are their economies in tatters, but their people are denied their basic rights: freedom and justice.

The problem with an extremist is that he tends to provoke another extremist in the opposite direction, with the divergent factions constantly trying to outdo one another, thus driving themselves deeper into the trough of unreasonableness and bitterness.

In contrast to the general incompetence which permeates communism in practice, their propaganda machine is highly efficient

Those who are prepared to make a stand on a matter of principle, especially when it demands a sacrifice, you can count on the fingers of your hands.

if one looks back and analyses the history of the past half century, the pages are littered with cases of how détente, or ‘diplomacy’, has been corrupted into appeasement, to the advantage of dictators or political gangsters