Alan Paton

For what can men do when so many have grown lawless? Who can enjoy the lovely land, who can enjoy the seventy years, and the sun that pours down on the earth, when there is fear in the heart? Who can walk quietly in the shadow of the jacarandas, when their beauty is grown to danger? Who can lie peacefully abed, while the darkness holds some secret? What lovers can lie sweetly under the stars, when menace grows with the measure of their seclusion?

It is not permissible for us to go on destroying the family life when we know that we are destroying it.

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.

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.

The tragedy is not that things are broken. The tragedy is that things are not mended again.