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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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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
Nothing
Behinds
Fools
Lap
Behind
Falls
Eats
Dark
Forests
Polished
Water
Woods
Leafs
White
Silent
Ants
Fall
Except
Leaf
Laps
Away
Quiet
Wood
Harbour
Ever
Fool
Forest
Deserted

More quotes by Alan Paton

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The Afrikaner has nowhere to go, and thats why he would rather destroy himself than capitulate.
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To give up the task of reforming society is to give up one's responsibility as a free man.
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There is only one thing that has power completely, and that is love.
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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.
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All roads lead to Johannesburg.
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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.
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Now God be thanked that the name of a hill is such music, that the name of a river can heal.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Life has not taught me to expect nothing, but she has taught me not to expect success to be the inevitable result of my endeavors. She taught me to seek sustenance from the endeavor itself, but to leave the result to God.
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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
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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
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There is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills.
Alan Paton
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I am a weak and sinful man, but God put His hands on me, that is all.
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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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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Sorrow is better than fear. Fear is a journey,a terrible journey, but sorrow is at least an arrival. When the storm threatens, a man is afraid for his house. But when the house is destroyed, there is something to do. About a storm he can do nothing, but he can rebuild a house.
Alan Paton
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For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much.
Alan Paton
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But the one thing that has power completely is love, because when a man loves, he seeks no power, and therefore he has power.
Alan Paton