Quotes by Alan Paton

“Happy the eyes that can close.”

“For who can stop the heart from breaking?”

“I see only one hope for our country, and that is when white men and black men, desiring neither power nor money, but desiring only the good for their country, come together to work for it. I have o...”

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

“Indeed, mother, you are always our helper.”

“For mines are for men, not for money. And money is not something to go mad about, and throw your hat into the air for. Money is for food and clothes and comfort, and a visit to the pictures. Money ...”

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

“There are voices crying what must be done, a hundred, a thousand voices. But what do they help if one seeks for counsel, for one cries this, and one cries that, and another cries something that is ...”

“...let us sell our labour for what it is worth. And if an industry cannot buy our labour, let that industry die. But let us not sell our labour cheap to keep an industry alive.”

“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.”

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

“He had come to tell his brother that power corrupts, that a man who fights for justice must himself be cleansed and purified, that love is greater than force. And none of these things had he done. ...”

“...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.”

“I say we shall always have native crime to fear until the native people of this country have worthy goals to work for. For it is only because they see neither purpose nor goal that they turn to dri...”

“For what can men do when so many have grown lawless? Who can enjoy the lovely land, who can enjoy the seventy years, and the sun that pours down on the earth, when there is fear in the heart? Who c...”