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.
ALAN PATONFor fear will rob him of all if he gives too much.
More Alan Paton Quotes
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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 -
For who can stop the heart from breaking?
ALAN PATON -
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.
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 -
Sadness and fear and hate, how they well up in the heart and mind, whenever one opens pages of these messengers of doom.
ALAN PATON -
All roads lead to Johannesburg.
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 -
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 -
But when the dawn will come, of our emancipation, from the fear of bondage and the bondage of fear, why, that is a secret.
ALAN PATON -
Ask yourself not if this or that is expedient, but if it is right.
ALAN PATON -
Sorrow is better than fear. Fear is a journey, a terrible journey. But, sorrow is at least an arriving.
ALAN PATON -
Nosecond Johannesburg isneededuponthe earth.One is enough.
ALAN PATON -
When the storm threatens, a man is afraid for his house.
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 -
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 -
These hills are grass-covered and rolling, and they are lovely beyond any singing of it.
ALAN PATON -
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 -
To give up the task of reforming society is to give up one’s responsibility as a free man.
ALAN PATON -
There is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills.
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.
ALAN PATON -
Keep it, guard it, care for it, for it keeps men, guards men, cares for men. Destroy it and man is destroyed.
ALAN PATON -
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.
ALAN PATON -
But to punish and not to restore, that is the greatest of all offences.
ALAN PATON -
There is only one thing that has power completely, and that is love.
ALAN PATON -
The only way in which one can make endurable man’s inhumanity to man.
ALAN PATON -
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