Alan Paton Quotes

What broke in a man when he could bring himself to kill another?

All roads lead to Johannesburg.

One day in Johannesburg, and already the tribe was being rebuilt, the house and soul being restored.

When a deep injury is done us, we never recover until we forgive.

To give up the task of reforming society is to give up one's responsibility as a free man.

I envision someday a great, peaceful South Africa in which the world will take pride, a nation in which each of many different groups will be making its own creative contribution.

Let me not be afraid to defend the weak because of the anger of the strong, nor afraid to defend the poor because of the anger of the rich.

It is not permissible to add to one's possesions if these things can only be done at the cost of other men. Such development has only one true name, and that is exploitation.

Sorrow is better than fear. Fear is a journey, a terrible journey. But, sorrow is at least an arriving.

But the one thing that has power completely is love, because when a man loves, he seeks no power, and therefore he has power.

I have always found that actively loving saves one from a morbid preoccupation with the shortcomings of society.

The truth is, our civilization is not Christian; it is a tragic compound of great ideal and fearful practice, of loving charity and fearful clutching of possessions.

The Judge does not make the law. It is people that make the law. Therefore if a law is unjust, and if the Judge judges according to the law, that is justice, even if it is not just.

Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply... For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much.

There is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills. These hills are grass-covered and rolling, and they are lovely beyond any singing of it.

We do not work for men. We work for the land and the people. We do not even work for money.

St. Francis of Assisi taught me that there is a wound in the Creation and that the greatest use we could make of our lives was to ask to be made a healer of it.

The tragedy is not that things are broken. The tragedy is that things are not mended again.

It is my belief that the only power which can resist the power of fear is the power of love.

There is only one way in which one can endure man's inhumanity to man and that is to try, in one's own life, to exemplify man's humanity to man.

I have one great fear in my heart, that one day when they are turned to loving, they will find that we are turned to hating.

But when the dawn will come, of our emancipation, from the fear of bondage and the bondage of fear, why, that is a secret.

But sorrow is better than fear. For fear impoverishes always, while sorrow may enrich.

Nothing is ever quiet, except for fools.

For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much.

Now God be thanked that the name of a hill is such music, that the name of a river can heal.

Although nothing has come yet, something is here already.

If you wrote a novel in South Africa which didn't concern the central issues, it wouldn't be worth publishing.

There is only one thing that has power completely, and that is love.

For it is the dawn that has come, as it has come for a thousand centuries, never failing.

But to punish and not to restore, that is the greatest of all offences.

because life slips away, and because I need for the rest of my journey a star that will not play false to me, a compass that will not lie.

I am a weak and sinful man, but God put His hands on me, that is all.

And were your back as broad as heaven, and your purse full of gold, and did your compassion reach from here to hell itself, there is nothing you can do.

It is not permissible for us to go on destroying the family life when we know that we are destroying it.

And money is not something to go mad about ... Money is for food and clothes and comfort, and a visit to the pictures. Money is to make happy the lives of children.

Happy the eyes that can close

There is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills.

The ground is holy, being even as it came from the Creator. Keep it, guard it, care for it, for it keeps men, guards men, cares for men. Destroy it and man is destroyed.

Nosecond Johannesburg isneededuponthe earth.One is enough.

Ask yourself not if this or that is expedient, but if it is right.

When men are ruled by fear, they strive to prevent the very changes that will abate it.

Something deep is touched here, something that is good and deep.

For who can stop the heart from breaking?

One thing is about to be finished, but here is something that is only begun. And while I live it will continue

The Afrikaner has nowhere to go, and thats why he would rather destroy himself than capitulate.

Forgive us all, for we all have trespasses.

Pain and suffering, they are a secret. Kindness and love, they are a secret. But I have learned that kindness and love can pay for pain and suffering.

It was not his habit to dwell on what could have been, but what could never be.

There's a hard law, mejuffrou, that when a deep injury is done to us, we never recover until we forgive.