Quote

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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Alan Paton
Age: 85 †
Born: 1903
Born: January 11
Died: 1988
Died: April 12
Author
Autobiographer
Politician
Screenwriter
Writer
Alan Patton
Alan Stewart Paton
Alen Peṭon
Practice
Fearful
Christian
Tragic
Truth
Ideal
Country
Possession
Great
Charity
Clutching
Ideals
Compound
Loving
Compounds
Civilization
Possessions

More quotes by Alan Paton

Image
Who knows for what we live, and struggle, and die?... 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
Image
And money is not something to go mad about ... Money is for food and clothes and comfort, and a visit to the pictures. Money is to make happy the lives of children.
Alan Paton
Image
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
Image
The tragedy is not that things are broken. The tragedy is that things are not mended again.
Alan Paton
Image
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.
Alan Paton
Image
But perhaps when you were too obedient, and did not do openly what others did, and were quiet in church and hard-working at school, then some unknown rebellion brewed in you, doing harm to you, though how I do not understand.
Alan Paton
Image
In the deserted harbour there is yet water that laps against the quays. In the dark and silent forest, there is a leaf that falls. Behind the polished panelling the white ant eats away the wood. Nothing is ever quiet, except for fools
Alan Paton
Image
But to punish and not to restore, that is the greatest of all offences.
Alan Paton
Image
I am a weak and sinful man, but God put His hands on me, that is all.
Alan Paton
Image
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
Image
It is not permissible for us to go on destroying the family life when we know that we are destroying it.
Alan Paton
Image
Nosecond Johannesburg isneededuponthe earth.One is enough.
Alan Paton
Image
Forgive us all, for we all have trespasses.
Alan Paton
Image
The ground is holy, being even as it came from the Creator. Keep it, guard it, care for it, for it keeps men, guards men, cares for men. Destroy it and man is destroyed.
Alan Paton
Image
Now God be thanked that the name of a hill is such music, that the name of a river can heal.
Alan Paton
Image
It is not permissible to add to one's possesions if these things can only be done at the cost of other men. Such development has only one true name, and that is exploitation.
Alan Paton
Image
It is not forgive and forget as if nothing wrong had ever happened, but forgive and go forward, building on the mistakes of the past and the energy generated by reconciliation to create a new future.
Alan Paton
Image
There is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills.
Alan Paton
Image
One thing is about to be finished, but here is something that is only begun. And while I live it will continue
Alan Paton
Image
The Judge does not make the law. It is people that make the law. Therefore if a law is unjust, and if the Judge judges according to the law, that is justice, even if it is not just.
Alan Paton