Jan Smuts citations

Jan Christiaan Smuts , était un avocat, un militaire, un philosophe et un homme d'État d’Afrique du Sud.

Général boer, chef militaire durant la Première Guerre mondiale, Field Marshal de l’Empire britannique, stratège militaire qui libéra l’Éthiopie de l'Italie fasciste durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, il fut également un homme politique précoce, ministre de la Justice de la colonie du Transvaal avant d'être, pour l'Union d'Afrique du Sud, ministre de la Défense, des Mines, de l’Intérieur, des Finances, des affaires indigènes, de la Justice et encore de la Défense ainsi que premier ministre à deux reprises de 1919 à 1924 et de 1939 à 1948.

Membre du cabinet impérial de Winston Churchill durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, il est le seul homme d’État à avoir été l'un des fondateurs de la Société des Nations en 1920 puis à avoir participé à la naissance de l’ONU en 1945. Il fut notamment l'un des principaux auteurs de la structure juridique de l’organisation et le rédacteur du préambule de la Charte des Nations unies.

Jan Smuts est également l'auteur d'une thèse sur le holisme qui a inspiré tant des économistes post-keynésiens que des sociologues tels Edgar Morin pour développer le concept de « pensée complexe ». Wikipedia  

✵ 24. mai 1870 – 11. septembre 1950
Jan Smuts photo
Jan Smuts: 30   citations 0   J'aime

Jan Smuts: Citations en anglais

“… the Jameson Raid was the real declaration of war.”

Smuts on the Second Boer War, as cited in Antony Lentin, 2010, Jan Smuts – Man of courage and vision ISBN 978-1-86842-390-3

“Just as we preach a "black peril" so they will begin to speak of a "white peril" and of the hostility the white men have toward them.”

In June 1947, addressing the head committee of the United Party in Transvaal, cited by Tom MacDonald (1948) in Jan Hofmeyr: Heir to Smuts, p. 219

“The Mountain is not merely something eternally sublime. It has a great historical and spiritual meaning for us … From it came the Law, from it came the Gospel in the Sermon on the Mount. We may truly say that the highest religion is the Religion of the Mountain.”

When he unveiled the Mountain Club War Memorial at Maclear's Beacon on the summit of Table Mountain (1923), as cited by Alan Paton in his final essay, A Literary Remembrance, published posthumously in TIME, 25 April 1988, p. 106

“If a nation does not want a monarchy, change the nation’s mind. If a nation does not need a monarchy, change the nation’s needs.”

To Princess Frederica of Greece, as cited by Doug Lennox in Now You Know Royalty, Monarchies in Action, p. 57

“It is the cleanest, neatest, most sudden and spectacular victory of the war, and in size is quite comparable to the German defeat before Stalingrad.”

At the conclusion of the North African Campaign in May 1943, as quoted by W. K. Hancock in SMUTS 2: The Fields of Force 1919-1950, p. 380

“History writes the word 'Reconciliation' over all her quarrels.”

Smuts to Alfred Milner (1905), as cited in Antony Lentin, 2010, Jan Smuts – Man of courage and vision ISBN 978-1-86842-390-3

“We do not want new orders. What the world wants is an old order of 2,000 years ago – the order of the man of Galilee.”

On "a post-war new world order" envisaged by the Allies during World War II, as cited in Antony Lentin, 2010, Jan Smuts – Man of courage and vision, p. 144. ISBN 978-1-86842-390-3

“Some of you will not come back. Some of you will come back maimed. Those of you who do come back will come back changed men. That is war!”

When seeing off young South Africans in World War II, as cited in Antony Lentin, 2010, Jan Smuts – Man of courage and vision, p. 138. ISBN 978-1-86842-390-3

“The idea that the Natives must all be removed and confined in their own kraals is in my opinion the greatest nonsense I have ever heard.”

In August 1946, as quoted by James Barber in South Africa in the Twentieth Century, p. 134