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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

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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
Christian
Tragic
Truth
Ideal
Country
Possession
Great
Charity
Clutching
Ideals
Compound
Loving
Compounds
Civilization
Possessions
Practice
Fearful

More quotes by Alan Paton

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Something deep is touched here, something that is good and deep.
Alan Paton
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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
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I have always found that actively loving saves one from a morbid preoccupation with the shortcomings of society.
Alan Paton
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When men are ruled by fear, they strive to prevent the very changes that will abate it.
Alan Paton
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It is my belief that the only power which can resist the power of fear is the power of love.
Alan Paton
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I have one great fear in my heart, that one day when they are turned to loving, they will find that we are turned to hating.
Alan Paton
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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
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We do not work for men. We work for the land and the people. We do not even work for money.
Alan Paton
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It was not his habit to dwell on what could have been, but what could never be.
Alan Paton
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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
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There is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills. These hills are grass-covered and rolling, and they are lovely beyond any singing of it.
Alan Paton
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When a deep injury is done us, we never recover until we forgive.
Alan Paton
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What broke in a man when he could bring himself to kill another? What 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 Paton
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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
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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 Paton
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Although nothing has come yet, something is here already.
Alan Paton
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Ask yourself not if this or that is expedient, but if it is right.
Alan Paton
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Nosecond Johannesburg isneededuponthe earth.One is enough.
Alan Paton
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Nothing is ever quiet, except for fools.
Alan Paton
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There is only one thing that has power completely, and that is love.
Alan Paton