- Born
- Died
- Birth nameJan Christiaan Smuts
- Jan Smuts was born on May 24, 1870 in Malmesbury, Cape Colony [now South Africa]. He died on September 11, 1950 in Doornkloof, South Africa.
- Prime minister of South Africa (1919-1924, 1939-1948).
- Smuts is portrayed in the film Gandhi (1982) by playwright Athol Fugard.
- He is the only person to be a signatory to the peace treaties that ended both World War I and World War II.
- He is the only person to be a signatory to both the League of Nations charter and the United Nations charter. He also wrote the preamble to the United Nations charter.
- He was commissioned as a Field Marshal in the British Army during both World War I and World War II. He was the first South African accorded such a rank in the British military.
- The British Empire is the greatest stimulant of organized freedom which the world has ever known. By geography, by experience, by practical idealism, by political maturity, by character, the British have a part to play which no other race could do so well.
- 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.
- The intimate rapport with nature is one of the most precious things in life. Nature is indeed very close to us; sometimes closer than hands and feet, of which in truth she is but the extension. The emotional appeal of nature is tremendous, sometimes almost more than one can bear.
- Having no human companion I felt a spirit of comradeship for the objects of nature around me. In my childish way I communed with these as with my own soul; they became the sharers of my confidence. (commenting on holism and evolution.)
- Not Wilson, but humanity failed at Paris. (commenting on both the death of Woodrow Wilson and his disappointment over the harsh terms in the Treaty of Versailles.)
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