# Quote — J. M. Coetzee, Foe

> If Providence were to watch over all of us,” said Cruso, “who would be left to pick the cotton and cut the sugar cane? For the business of the world to prosper, Providence must sometimes wake and sometimes sleep, as lower creatures do.”

- Author: [J. M. Coetzee](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee.md)
- Book: [Foe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/foe.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._M._Coetzee#Foe_(1986)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/foe/if-providence-were

## More from this book

> But this is not a place of words. Each syllable, as it comes out, is caught and filled with water and diffused. This is a place where bodies have their own signs. It is the home of Friday.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/foe/but-this-is-not.md)

> Nothing I have forgotten is worth the remembering.

p. 17 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/foe/nothing-i-have.md)

> Return to me the substance I have lost, Mr. Foe. That is my entreaty.

p. 51 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/foe/return-to-me-the.md)