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 PATONSt. 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 PATONAnd 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 PATONLet 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 PATONMoney is for buying the fruits of the earth, of the land where you were born.
ALAN PATONSomething deep is touched here, something that is good and deep.
ALAN PATONNosecond Johannesburg isneededuponthe earth.One is enough.
ALAN PATONBut I have learned that kindness and love can pay for pain and suffering.
ALAN PATONIt is not permissible for us to go on destroying the family life when we know that we are destroying it.
ALAN PATONThis is no time to talk of hedges and fields, or the beauties of any country.
ALAN PATONWhen men are ruled by fear, they strive to prevent the very changes that will abate it.
ALAN PATONBut when the house is destroyed, there is something to do. About a storm he can do nothing, but he can rebuild a house.
ALAN PATONWho knows for what we live, and struggle, and die?…
ALAN PATONThe sun pours down on the earth, on the lovely land that man cannot enjoy. He knows only the fear of his heart.
ALAN PATONHappy the eyes that can close
ALAN PATONBehind the polished panelling the white ant eats away the wood. Nothing is ever quiet, except for fools
ALAN PATONWhen 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?
ALAN PATON