The Honoris Crux Diamond was a South African military decoration that existed from 1975 to 1993. It was the highest of the four classes of the Honoris Crux Decoration (see also Honoris Crux Gold, Honoris Crux Silver, and Honoris Crux), and was intended to recognise "death-defying heroic deeds of outstanding valour". It was never awarded.
The only Honoris Crux Diamond Class decoration ever to be produced was donated to the South African National Museum of Military History by the Department of Defence on 21 May 2009.
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“This is the crux of the moral pessimists: if they really wanted to promote their neighbor’s redemption, then they would have to resolve themselves to spoiling existence for him, and thus to being his misfortune; out of pity, they would have to—become evil!”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
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—John Michael Hayes (b.1919)