Quote

It was not his habit to dwell on what could have been, but what could never be.

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
Never
Dwell
Habit

More quotes by Alan Paton

Image
I have always found that actively loving saves one from a morbid preoccupation with the shortcomings of society.
Alan Paton
Image
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 neither this nor that.
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
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
Image
The tragedy is not that things are broken. The tragedy is that things are not mended again.
Alan Paton
Image
Happy the eyes that can close
Alan Paton
Image
It is my belief that the only power which can resist the power of fear is the power of love.
Alan Paton
Image
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
Image
For who can stop the heart from breaking?
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
One day in Johannesburg, and already the tribe was being rebuilt, the house and soul being restored.
Alan Paton
Image
For it is the dawn that has come, as it has come for a thousand centuries, never failing.
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
To give up the task of reforming society is to give up one's responsibility as a free man.
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
Let me not be afraid to defend the weak because of the anger of the strong, nor afraid to defend the poor because of the anger of the rich.
Alan Paton
Image
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
Image
because life slips away, and because I need for the rest of my journey a star that will not play false to me, a compass that will not lie.
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
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