"The basic tenet of black consciousness is that the black man must reject all value systems that seek to make him a foreigner in the country of his birth and reduce his basic human dignity."

"Steve, with his brilliant mind that always saw to the heart of things, realized that until blacks asserted their humanity and their personhood, there was not the remotest chance for reconciliation in South Africa.... Steve knew and believed fervently that being pro-black was not the same thing as being anti-white. The black consciousness movement is not a "hate white movement" despite all you may have heard to the contrary. He had a far too profound respect for persons as persons to want them under ready-made, shop-soiled, second-hand categories...We weep with and pray for Ntsiki [Mrs. Biko] and all of Steve's family. We weep for ourselves. . . . Steve started something that is quite unstoppable. The powers of injustice, of oppression, of exploitation have done their worst and they have lost.... Many who support the present unjust system in this country know in their hearts that they are upholding a system that is evil and unjust and oppressive, and which is utterly abhorrent and displeasing to God. There is no doubt whatsoever that freedom is coming. Yes, it may be a costly struggle still. The darkest hour, they say, is before the dawn. We are experiencing the birth pangs of a new South Africa, a free South Africa, where all of us, black and white together will walk tall; where all of us, black and white together, will hold hands as we stride forth on the Freedom March to usher in the South Africa where people will matter because they are human beings made in the image of God. We thank and praise God for giving us such a magnificent gift in Steve Biko"

"Dictatorships fall not only when they have implacable opponents but also exemplary victims: Steve Biko in South Africa, Benigno Aquino in the Philippines, Jerzy Popieluszko in Poland. Through their deaths, they awakened the living to the conviction that it was the regime that should die instead."

"Much of Biko's energy is devoted to criticizing the liberal in both the condescending white and the idiotic black forms. The black liberal is idiotic because black people lack power in a white-controlled system. The white liberal, on the other hand, operates from the vantage point of having something—perhaps a great deal—to lose in the event of progressive social change. The white liberal's offer to help has an air of condescension because it masks a profound existential investment in the continuation of the racist system. Thus, the white liberal always insists on offering the theoretical or interpretive strategies against antiblack racism, but such strategies often act to preserve the need for white liberals as the most cherished members or overseers of values in their society. In Biko's words: "I am against the superior-inferior white-black stratification that makes the white man a perpetual teacher and the black a perpetual pupil (and a poor one at that.)""

"On June 16, 1976, schoolchildren in Soweto, the sprawling black township outside Johannesburg, South Africa, revolted. They pred into the streets to protest a new apartheid law requiring that they be taught in Afrikaans, "the language of the oppressor," as Archbishop Desmond Tutu once called the mother tongue of white Afrikaners. The students' act of defiance that day would change the course of their nation's history. "The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed," said Steve Biko, leader of South Africa's Black Consciousness Movement and an inspiration to student activists. A cornerstone of oppression in South Africa was "Bantu education," the name given to the separate and inferior schooling that South Africa's black majority was forced to endure under the system of official discrimination known as apartheid. Biko charged that the objective of Bantu education was "to prepare the black man for the subservient role in this country.'"

"We must realise that prophetic cry of black students: "Black man you are on your own!""

"In time, we shall be in a position to bestow on South Africa the greatest possible gift—a more human face."

"The system concedes nothing without demand, for it formulates its very method of operation on the basis that the ignorant will learn to know, the child will grow into an adult and therefore demands will begin to be made. It gears itself to resist demands in whatever way it sees fit."

"The logic behind white domination is to prepare the black man for the subservient role in this country. Not so long ago this used to be freely said in parliament, even about the educational system of the black people. It is still said even today, although in a much more sophisticated language. To a large extent the evil-doers have succeeded in producing at the output end of their machine a kind of black man who is man only in form. This is the extent to which the process of dehumanization has advanced."

"Apartheid — both petty and grand — is obviously evil. Nothing can justify the arrogant assumption that a clique of foreigners has the right to decide on the lives of a majority."

"The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed."

"It is better to die for an idea that will live, than to live for an idea that will die."

"Even today, we are still accused of racism. This is a mistake. We know that all interracial groups in South Africa are relationships in which whites are superior, blacks inferior. So as a prelude whites must be made to realize that they are only human, not superior. Same with blacks. They must be made to realize that they are also human, not inferior."

"I'm armed with more than complete steel,— The justice of my quarrel."

"Comparisons are odious."

"All they that love not tobacco and boys are fools."

"Above our life we love a steadfast friend."

"Love always makes those eloquent that have it."

"All women are ambitious naturally."

"Like untuned golden strings all women are, Which long time lie untouch'd, will harshly jar. Vessels of brass, oft handled, brightly shine."

"Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?"

"It lies not in our power to love or hate, For will in us is overruled by fate."

"A pleasant-smiling cheek, a speaking eye, A brow for love to banquet royally."

"He that loves pleasure, must for pleasure fall."

"Pray for me! and what noise soever ye hear, come not unto me, for nothing can rescue me."

"Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships, And burnt the topless towers of Ilium? Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss!"

"When all the world dissolves, And every creature shall be purified, All places shall be hell that are not heaven."

"Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscrib'd In one self place; but where we are is hell, And where hell is, there must we ever be."

"Che serà, serà: What will be, shall be."

"And let these tears, distilling from mine eyes, Be proof of my grief and innocency."

"My swelling heart for very anger breaks."

"What should a priest do with so fair a house? A prison may best beseem his holiness."

"My men, like satyrs grazing on the lawns, Shall with their goat feet dance the antic hay."

"So, march away; and let due praise be given Neither to fate nor fortune, but to Heaven."

"Love me little, love me long."

"Thou hast committed— Fornication: but that was in another country; And besides, the wench is dead."

"Now will I show myself to have more of the serpent than the dove; that is, more knave than fool."

"Religion Hides many mischiefs from suspicion."

"Things past recovery Are hardly cured with exclamations."

"Excess of wealth is cause of covetousness."

"And thus methinks should men of judgment frame Their means of traffic from the vulgar trade, And, as their wealth increaseth, so inclose Infinite riches in a little room."

"I count religion but a childish toy, And hold there is no sin but ignorance."

"Let Earth and Heaven his timeless death deplore, For both their worths shall equal him no more."

"Accurst be he that first invented war."

"Our swords shall play the orators for us."

"Time passeth swift away; Our life is frail, and we may die to-day."

"What strange arts necessity finds out."

"Pluck up your hearts, since fate still rests our friend."

"You sons of care, companions of my course!"

"Come live with me and be my Love, And we will all the pleasures prove That hills and valleys, dales and fields, Or woods or steepy mountain yields.And we will sit upon the rocks, And see the shepherds feed their flocks By shallow rivers, to whose falls Melodious birds sing madrigals.And I will make thee beds of roses And a thousand fragrant posies."