One thing is about to be finished, but here is something that is only begun. And while I live it will continue
ALAN PATONOne thing is about to be finished, but here is something that is only begun. And while I live it will continue
ALAN PATONThe tragedy is not that things are broken.
ALAN PATONTherefore if a law is unjust, and if the Judge judges according to the law, that is justice, even if it is not just.
ALAN PATONCry, 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 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 PATONWise 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 PATONWhat broke when he could bring himself to thrust down the knife into the warm flesh, to bring down the axe on the living head, to cleave down between the seeing eyes, to shoot the gun that would drive death into the beating heart?
ALAN PATONThere is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills.
ALAN PATONBut 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 PATONI have always found that actively loving saves one from a morbid preoccupation with the shortcomings of society.
ALAN PATONNothing is ever quiet, except for fools.
ALAN PATONKeep it, guard it, care for it, for it keeps men, guards men, cares for men. Destroy it and man is destroyed.
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 PATONI 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 PATONWe do not work for men. We work for the land and the people. We do not even work for money.
ALAN PATONNosecond Johannesburg isneededuponthe earth.One is enough.
ALAN PATON