Democracy is not a state in which people act like sheep.

What is really needed to make democracy function is not knowledge of facts, but right education.

Democracy and violence can ill go together. Evolution of democracy is not possible if we are not prepared to hear the other side.

In the face of great perils never before encountered, our strong purpose is to protect and to perpetuate the integrity of democracy.

Ours has been a quest for a constitution freely adopted by the people of South Africa, reflecting their wishes and their aspirations. The struggle for democracy has never been a matter pursued by one race, class, religious community or gender among South Africans. In honouring those who fought to see this day arrive, we honour the best sons and daughters of all our people.

In vain they seek to hide behind the flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the flag and the Constitution stand for. Now, as always, they stand for democracy, not tyranny; for freedom, not subjection; and against a dictatorship by mob rule and the over-privileged alike.