- Mr. Berg, Are you an Afrikaner?- Yes-And are you proud of it?-I am not ashamed of it, but I am not proud of it, for in fact I had nothing to do with it.

— Alan Paton

There is a hard law. When an injury is done to us, we never recover until we forgive.

— Alan Paton

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

There's a hard law, mejuffrou, that when a deep injury is done to us, we never recover until we forgive.

— Alan Paton

They were your friends?"" Yes, they were my friends."" And they will leave you to suffer alone?"" Now I see it."" And until this, were they friends you could trust?"" I could trust them."" I see what you mean. You mean they were the kind of friends that a good man could choose, upright, hard-working, obeying the law? Tell me, were they such friends? And now they leave you alone? Did you not see it before?"" I saw it.

— Alan Paton

— This world is full of trouble, umfundisi.— Who knows it better?— Yet you believe? Kumar looked at him under the light of the lamp. I believe, he said, but I have learned that it is a secret. Pain and suffering, they are a secret. Kindness and love, they are a secret. But I have learned that kindness and love can pay for pain and suffering. There is my wife, and you, my friend, and these people who welcomed me, and the child who is so eager to be with us here in Ndotsheni – so in my suffering I can believe.— I have never thought that a Christian would be free of suffering, umfundisi. For our Lord suffered. And I come to believe that he suffered, not to save us from suffering, but to teach us how to bear suffering. For he knew that there is no life without suffering. Kumalo looked at his friend with joy. You are a preacher, he said.

— Alan Paton

To give up the task of reforming society is to give up one's responsibility as a free man.

— Alan Paton

When a deep injury is done us, we never recover until we forgive.

— Alan Paton

When I go up there, which is my intention, the Big Judge will say to me, “Where are your wounds?” and if I say I haven’t any, he will say, “Was there nothing to fight for?” I couldn’t face that question.

— Alan Paton

When men are ruled by fear they strive to prevent the very changes that will abate it.

— Alan Paton