Alan Paton Quotes

Quotes about:

• 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

  Moving On, Forgiveness, Mistake

  126 Copy quote

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

  Alan Paton

  Men, Killing Each Other, Violence

  Alan Paton (2003). “Cry, the Beloved Country”, p.79, Simon and Schuster

  68 Copy quote

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

  Alan Paton

  Broken, Tragedy, Cry The Beloved Country

  9 Copy quote

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

  Alan Paton

  Forgiveness, Forgiving, Done

  Alan Paton (2011). “Too Late The Phalarope”, p.278, Simon and Schuster

  37 Copy quote

• 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

  Pain, Kindness, Secret

  Alan Paton (2015). “Cry, The Beloved Country”, p.193, Random House

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Strong, Rich, Poor

  29 Copy quote

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

  Alan Paton

  Giving Up, Responsibility, Men

  33 Copy quote

• 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

  Christian, Believe, Suffering

  Alan Paton (2003). “Cry, the Beloved Country”, p.204, Simon and Schuster

  14 Copy quote

• 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

  Men, Inhumanity To Man, Way

  Alan Paton, Colin Oxenham Gardner (1975). “Knocking on the Door”, David Philip Publishers

  30 Copy quote

• Sorrow is better than fear. Fear is a journey,a terrible journey, but sorrow is at least an arrival. When the storm threatens, a man is afraid for his house. But when the house is destroyed, there is something to do. About a storm he can do nothing, but he can rebuild a house.

  Alan Paton

  Journey, Men, House

  Alan Paton (2003). “Cry, the Beloved Country”, p.98, Simon and Schuster

  29 Copy quote

• 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

  Beautiful, Fighting, Land

  13 Copy quote

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

  Alan Paton

  Life, Standards, Asks

  5 Copy quote

• 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

  Running, Country, Children

  Felicia Komai, Alan Paton (1955). “Cry, the beloved country: a verse drama”

  43 Copy quote

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

  Alan Paton

  Love, Fear, Belief

  ALAN PATON (1968). “Cry, the Beloved Country”

  12 Copy quote

• 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

  Love, Peace, Pride

  33 Copy quote

• Who knows for what we live, and struggle, and die?... 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

  Life, Wise, Wisdom

  Alan Paton (2003). “Cry, the Beloved Country”, p.57, Simon and Schuster

  27 Copy quote

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

  Alan Paton

  Morbid, Preoccupation, Found

  24 Copy quote

• 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

  Taught, Expect Nothing, Results

  4 Copy quote

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

  Alan Paton

  Love, Men, One Thing

  25 Copy quote

• 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

  Stars, Lying, Journey

  Alan Paton (2003). “Cry, the Beloved Country”, p.159, Simon and Schuster

  6 Copy quote

• 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

  Men, Names, Add

  ALAN PATON (1968). “Cry, the Beloved Country”

  26 Copy quote

• 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

  Fall, Dark, White

  Alan Paton (1950). “Cry, the beloved country”, Charles Scribner's Sons

  20 Copy quote

• 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

  Country, Hate, Heart

  Cry, the Beloved Country ch. 7 (1948)

  9 Copy quote

• 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

  Country, Children, Hate

  7 Copy quote

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

  Alan Paton

  Journey, Sorrow, Arriving

  Alan Paton (2003). “Cry, the Beloved Country”, p.98, Simon and Schuster

  24 Copy quote

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