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Ask yourself not if this or that is expedient, but if it is right.

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
Standards
Asks
Right
Life
Expedient

More quotes by 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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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
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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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Sorrow is better than fear. Fear is a journey, a terrible journey. But, sorrow is at least an arriving.
Alan Paton
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For it is the dawn that has come, as it has come for a thousand centuries, never failing.
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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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
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Forgive us all, for we all have trespasses.
Alan Paton
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All roads lead to Johannesburg.
Alan Paton
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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
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There is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills.
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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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
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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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For who can stop the heart from breaking?
Alan Paton
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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
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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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But sorrow is better than fear. For fear impoverishes always, while sorrow may enrich.
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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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