Alan Paton quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Alan Paton

Alan Paton Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from Alan Paton on Wise Famous Quotes.

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

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

Nothing is every quiet, except for fools.

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

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

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.

It is the duty of a judge to do justice, but it is only the people who can be just

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.

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

Happy the eyes that can close

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

He was reluctant to open it, for once such a thing is opened, it cannot be shut again.

He is a missionary and believes in God, intensely I mean, but it takes all kinds to make a world.

For who can stop the heart from breaking?

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

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

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

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.

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

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

No second Johannesburg is needed upon the earth. One is enough.

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.

All roads lead to Johannesburg.

God forgives us ... who am I not to forgive?

Forgive us all, for we all have trespasses.

The humble man reached in his pocket for his sacred book, and began to read. It was this world alone that was certain.

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.

In a land of fear ... incorruptibility is like a lamp set upon a stand, giving light to all in the house.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

Indeed, mother, you are always our helper."
"For what else are we born?

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

There is a hard law. When an injury is done to us, we never recover until we forgive.

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