Quotes for Friday

Enjoy the following quotes from books I have recently read.

A cooperative of any kind in South Africa would cause a riot of hysteria among the white population - their wealth and privilege are dependent on the poverty and distress of black people. 

(Bessie Head in A Woman Alone)

I would propose that mankind will one day be ruled by men who are God and not greedy, power-hungry politicians.

(Bessie Head in A Woman Alone)

When a person is said to have died he is not dead, he is merely transformed, the breath of life having left this covering of flesh and migrated to another land which shines more gloriously than the sun. 

(Thomas Mofolo in Chaka)

There is only one thing that has power completely, and it is love. Because when a man loves, he seeks no power, and that is love. 

(Alan Paton in Cry, the Beloved Country)

But when a black man gets power, when he gets money, he is a great man if he is not corrupt. ... He seeks power and money to put right what is wrong, and when he gets them, why, he enjoys the power and the money.

(Alan Paton in Cry, the Beloved Country)

I have only one fear in my heart, that one day when they are turned to loving, they will find we are turned to hating.

(Alan Paton in Cry, the Beloved Country)

... the counsellors of a broken tribe have counsel for many things, but none for the matter of a broken tribe. 

(Alan Paton in Cry, the Beloved Country)

... they were feeding an old man with milk, and pretending that he would one day grow into a boy. 

(Alan Paton in Cry, the Beloved Country)

Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much. 

(Alan Paton in Cry, the Beloved Country)

There is not much talking now. A silence falls upon them all. This is no time to talk of hedges and fields, or the beauties of any country. Sadness and fear and hate, how they well up in the heart and mind, whenever one opens the pages of these messengers of doom. 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 in Cry, the Beloved Country)