Alan Paton Quotes & Sayings
Enjoy the top 87 famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Alan Paton.
Famous Quotes By Alan Paton
Stand unshod upon it, for 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. — Alan Paton
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. — Alan Paton
His son had gone astray in the great city, where so many others had gone astray before him, and where many others would go astray after him, until there was found some great secret that as yet no man had discovered. — Alan Paton
It was to the small serious boy that he turned for his enjoyment. He had bought the child some cheap wooden blocks, and with these the little one played endlessly and intently, with a purpose obscure to the adult mind, but completely absorbing. — Alan Paton
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. — Alan Paton
They stopped at one of these half-tank houses ... where they were greeted by a young girl, who herself seemed like no more than a child.
- We have come to enquire after Absalom ... Have you heard nothing from him?
Nothing, she said.
When will he return? he asked.
I do not know, she said.
Will he ever return? he asked, indifferently, carelessly.
I do not know she said. She said it tonelessly, hopelessly, as one who is used to waiting, to desertion. She said it as one who expects nothing from her seventy years upon the earth. No rebellion will come out of her, no demands, no fierceness. Nothing will come out of her at all save the children of men who will use her, leave her, forget her. — Alan Paton
Deep down the fear of a man who lives in a world not made for him, whose own world is slipping away, dying, being destroyed, beyond any recall. — Alan Paton
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. — Alan Paton
There is a man sleeping in the grass. And over him is gathering the greatest storm of all his days. Such lightening and thunder will come there has never been seen before, bringing death and destruction. People hurry home past him, to places safe from danger. And whether they do not see him there in the grass, or whether they fear to halt even a moment, but they do not wake him, they let him be. — Alan Paton
It is not permissible for us to go on destroying the family life when we know that we are destroying it. — Alan Paton
All roads lead to Johannesburg. If you are white or if you are black they lead to Johannesburg. If the crops fail, there is work in Johannesburg. If there are taxes to be paid, there is work in Johannesburg. If the farm is too small to be divided further, some must go to Johannesburg. If there is a child to be born that must be delivered in secret, it can be delivered in Johannesburg. — Alan Paton
It is my belief that the only power which can resist the power of fear is the power of love. — Alan Paton
And that next day, he was in the black mood, what we call the swartgalligheid, which is the black gall. And the heart is black too, and the world is black, and one can tell oneself that it will pass, but these are only words that one speaks to oneself, for while it is there it is no comfort that it will pass. — Alan Paton
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. — Alan Paton
Have no doubt it is fear in the land. For what can men do when so many have grown lawless? Who can enjoy the lovely land, who can enjoy the seventy years, and the sun that pours down on the earth, when there is fear in the heart? Who can walk quietly in the shadow of the jacarandas, when their beauty is grown to danger? Who can lie peacefully abed, while the darkness holds some secret? What lovers can lie sweetly under the stars, when menace grows with the measure of their seclusion? — Alan Paton
When I go up there, which is my intention, the Big Judge will say to me, Where are your wounds? and if I say I haven't any, he will say, Was there nothing to fight for? I couldn't face that question. (Ah, But Your Land Is Beautiful) — Alan Paton
We do not work for men. We work for the land and the people. We do not even work for money. — Alan Paton
Sorrow is better than fear. Fear is a journey, a terrible journey. But, sorrow is at least an arriving. — Alan Paton
He was reluctant to open it, for once such a thing is opened, it cannot be shut again. — Alan Paton
For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much. — Alan Paton
When men are ruled by fear, they strive to prevent the very changes that will abate it. — Alan Paton
For it is the dawn that has come, as it has come for a thousand centuries, never failing. — Alan Paton
God forgives us ... who am I not to forgive? — Alan Paton
He pondered long over this, for might not another man, returning to another valley, have found none of these things? Why was it given to one man to have his pain transmuted into gladness? Why was it given to one man to have such an awareness of God? — Alan Paton
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. — Alan Paton
Who indeed knows the secret of the earthly pilgrimage? Who indeed knows why there can be comfort in a world of desolation? Now God be thanked that there is a beloved one who can lift up the heart in suffering, that one can play with a child in the face of such misery. Now God be thanked that the name of a hill is such music, that the name of a river can heal. Aye, even the name of a river that runs no more.
Who indeed knows the secret of the earthly pilgrimage? Who knows for what we live, and struggle and die? Who knows what keeps us living and struggling, while all things break about us? Who knows why the warm flesh of a child is such comfort, when one's own child is lost and cannot be recovered? Wise men write many books, in words too hard to understand. But this, the purpose of our lives, the end of all our struggle, is beyond all human wisdom. — Alan Paton
There are voices crying what must be done, a hundred, a thousand voices. But what do they help if one seeks for counsel, for one cries this, and one cries that, and another cries something that is neither this nor that. — Alan Paton
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. — Alan Paton
Would age now swiftly overtake him? Would this terrible nodding last now for all his days, so that men said aloud in his presence, it is nothing, he is old and does nothing but forget? And would he nod as though he too were saying, Yes, it is nothing, I am old and do nothing but forget? But who would know that he said, I do nothing but remember? — Alan Paton
Life has not taught me to expect nothing, but she has taught me not to expect success to be the inevitable result of my endeavors. She taught me to seek sustenance from the endeavor itself, but to leave the result to God. — Alan Paton
To give up the task of reforming society is to give up one's responsibility as a free man. — Alan Paton
Forgive us all, for we all have trespasses. — Alan Paton
If you wrote a novel in South Africa which didn't concern the central issues, it wouldn't be worth publishing. — Alan Paton
Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that's the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing. Nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him if he gives too much. — Alan Paton
There is not much talking now. A silence falls upon them all. This is no time to talk of hedges and fields, or the beauties of any country. Sadness and fear and hate, how they well up in the heart and mind, whenever one opens pages of these messengers of doom. Cry for the broken tribe, for the law and the custom that is gone. Aye, and cry aloud for the man who is dead, for the woman and children bereaved. Cry, the beloved country, these things are not yet at an end. The sun pours down on the earth, on the lovely land that man cannot enjoy. He knows only the fear of his heart. — Alan Paton
There are many sides to this difficult problem. And people persist in discussing soil-erosion, and tribal decay, and lack of schools, and crime, as though they were all parts of the matter. If you think long enough about it, you will be brought to consider republics, and bilingualism, and immigration, and Palestine, and God knows what. So in a way it is best not to think about it at all. — Alan Paton
There is a hard law. When an injury is done to us, we never recover until we forgive. — Alan Paton
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. — Alan Paton
But there is only one thing that has power completely, and this is love. Because when a man loves, he seeks no power, and therefore he has power. — Alan Paton
But to punish and not to restore, that is the greatest of all offences. — Alan Paton
What broke in a man when he could bring himself to kill another? — Alan Paton
Nothing is every quiet, except for fools. — Alan Paton
It is the duty of a judge to do justice, but it is only the people who can be just — Alan Paton
You ask yourself not if this or that is expedient, but if it is right. — Alan Paton
He is a missionary and believes in God, intensely I mean, but it takes all kinds to make a world. — Alan Paton
The only way in which one can make endurable man's inhumanity to man, and man's destruction of his own environment, is to exemplify in your own lives man's humanity to man and man's reverence for the place in which he lives. — Alan Paton
They were your friends?"
"Yes, they were my friends."
"And they will leave you to suffer alone?"
"Now I see it."
"And until this, were they friends you could trust?"
"I could trust them."
"I see what you mean. You mean they were the kind of friends that a good man could choose, upright, hard-working, obeying the law?
Tell me, were they such friends?
And now they leave you alone?
Did you not see it before?"
"I saw it. — Alan Paton
But sorrow is better than fear. For fear impoverishes always, while sorrow may enrich. — Alan Paton
For who can stop the heart from breaking? — Alan Paton
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. — Alan Paton
One day in Johannesburg, and already the tribe was being rebuilt, the house and soul being restored. — Alan Paton
Indeed, mother, you are always our helper."
"For what else are we born? — Alan Paton
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. — Alan Paton
The judge does not make the law. It is the people that make the law. It is the duty of a judge to do justice, but it is only the people that can be just — Alan Paton
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 ... — Alan Paton
He went out of the door, and she watched him through the little window, walking slowly to the door of the church. Then she sat down at his table, and put her head on it, and was silent, with the patient suffering of black women, with the suffering of oxen, with the suffering of any that are mute. — Alan Paton
Meneer, said the captain, if man takes unto himself God's right to punish, then he must also take upon himself God's promise to restore. — Alan Paton
It is not "forgive and forget" as if nothing wrong had ever happened, but "forgive and go forward," building on the mistakes of the past and the energy generated by reconciliation to create a new future. — Alan Paton
I do this not because I am courageous and honest, but because it is the only way to end the conflict of my deepest soul. — Alan Paton
I have always found that actively loving
saves one from a morbid preoccupation
with the shortcomings of society. — Alan Paton
I have never thought that a Christian would be free of suffering, umfundisi. For our Lord suffered. And I come to believe that he suffered, not to save us from suffering, but to teach us how to bear suffering. For he knew that there is no life without suffering. — Alan Paton
For mines are for men, not for money. And money is not something to go mad about, and throw your hat into the air for. Money is for food and clothes and comfort, and a visit to the pictures. Money is to make happy the lives of children. Money is for security, and for dreams, and for hopes, and for purposes. Money is for buying the fruits of the earth, of the land where you were born. — Alan Paton
There is no point in imagining that if one had been there, one could have prevented a thing that had happened only because it had not been prevented — Alan Paton
Therefore let us sell our labour for what it is worth. And if an industry cannot buy our labour, let that industry die. But let us not sell our labour cheap to keep an industry alive. — Alan Paton
It was not his habit to dwell on what could have been, but what could never be. — Alan Paton
No second Johannesburg is needed upon the earth. One is enough. — Alan Paton
Indeed, there is something in this valley, some spirit and some life, and much to talk about in the huts. Although nothing has come yet, something is here already. — Alan Paton
There is only one thing that has power completely, and that is love. — Alan Paton
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. — Alan Paton
But when that dawn will come, of our emancipation, from the fear of bondage and the bondage of fear, why, that is a secret. — Alan Paton
In a land of fear ... incorruptibility is like a lamp set upon a stand, giving light to all in the house. — Alan Paton
The tragedy is not that things are broken. The tragedy is that things are not mended again. — Alan Paton
One thing is about to be finished, but here is something that is only begun. And while I live it will continue — Alan Paton
The humble man reached in his pocket for his sacred book, and began to read. It was this world alone that was certain. — Alan Paton
I see only one hope for our country, and that is when white men and black men, desiring neither power nor money, but desiring only the good for their country, come together to work for it.
I have one great fear in my heart, that one day when they are turned to loving, they will find we are turned to hating. — Alan Paton
Happy the eyes that can close — Alan Paton
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. — Alan Paton
Something in the humble voice must have touched Msimangu, for he said, I am not kind. I am a selfish and sinful man, but God put his hands on me, that is all. — Alan Paton
Something within me is waking from long sleep, and I want to live and move again. Some zest is returning to me, some immense gratefulness for those who love me, some strong wish to love them also. I am full of thanks for life. I have not told myself to be thankful. I am just so. — Alan Paton
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. — Alan Paton
But perhaps when you were too obedient, and did not do openly what others did, and were quiet in church and hard-working at school, then some unknown rebellion brewed in you, doing harm to you, though how I do not understand. — Alan Paton
Now God be thanked that the name of a hill is such music, that the name of a river can heal. — Alan Paton
The Afrikaner has nowhere to go, and thats why he would rather destroy himself than capitulate. — Alan Paton
In the meantime the strike is over, with a remarkably low loss of life. All is quiet, they report, all is quiet.
In the deserted harbour there is yet water that laps against the quays. In the dark and silent forest there is a leaf that falls. Behind the polished panelling the white ant eats away the wood. Nothing is ever quiet, except for fools. — Alan Paton
Aye, but the hand that had murdered had once pressed the mother's breast into the thirsting mouth, had stolen into the father's hand when they went out into the dark. Aye, but the murderer afraid of death had once been a child afraid of the night. — Alan Paton