Cry, The Beloved Country Quotes

“Does he repent him or is there only room for his fear?”
― Alan Paton, Cry, The Beloved Country

“I cannot stop you from thinking your thoughts. It is good that a young man has such deep thoughts. But hate no man, and desire power over no man.”
― Alan Paton, Cry, The Beloved Country

“I am not kind. I am a selfish and sinful man, but God put his hands on me, that is all.”
― Alan Paton, Cry, The Beloved Country

“And he was silent again, for who is not silent when someone is dead, who was a small bright boy?”
― Alan Paton, Cry, The Beloved Country

“I shall do this, not because I am noble or unselfish, but 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, Cry, The Beloved Country

“Cry for the broken tribe, for the law and the custom that is gone. Aye, and cry aloud for the man who is dead, for the woman and children bereaved. Cry, the beloved country, these things are not yet at an end. The sun pours down on the earth, on the lovely land that man cannot enjoy. He knows only the fear of his heart.”
― Alan Paton, Cry, The Beloved Country

“I shall no longer ask myself if this or that is expedient, but only if it is right. I shall do this, not because I am noble or unselfish, but 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…. I am lost when I balance this against that, I am lost when I ask if this is safe…. Therefore I shall try to do what is right, and to speak what is true. I do this not because I am courageous and honest, but because it is the only way to end the conflict of my deepest soul. I do it because I am no longer able to aspire to the highest with one part of myself, and to deny it with another. I do not wish to live like that, I would rather die than live like that. I understand better those who have died for their convictions, and have not thought it was wonderful or brave or noble to die. They died rather than live, that was all.”
― Alan Paton, Cry, The Beloved Country

“It is my own belief that the only power which can resistthe power of fear is the power of love. It’s a weak thing anda tender thing; men despise and deride it. But I look for theday when in South Africa we shall realize that the only last-ing and worth-while solution of our grave and profoundproblems lies not in the use of power, but in that under-standing and compassion without which human life is anintolerable bondage, condemning us all to an existence ofviolence, misery and fear.”
― Alan Paton, Cry, The Beloved Country

“We are caught in the toils of our own selfishness.”
― Alan Paton, Cry, The Beloved Country