Cry, The Beloved Country Quotes

Cry, The Beloved Country is the famous African novel by Alan Paton. The story follows the journey of a minister, who travels to the big city in search of his prodigal son. Cry, The Beloved Country is said to have been inspired (or influenced) by Laurens van der Posts novel  In a Province (1934). Alan Paton started the novel in 1946, and the book was finally published in 1948. Paton was a South African author and anti-apartheid activist.   Quotes From Chapter One Through Chapter Ten There is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills... [T]hey go to Johannesburg, and there they are lost, and no one hears of them at all. One day in Johannesburg, and already the tribe was being rebuilt, the house and soul being restored. I have one great fear in my heart, that one day when they are turned to loving, they will find that we are turned to hating. All roads lead to Johannesburg. Now God be thanked that the name of a hill is such music, that the name of a river can heal. Quotes From Chapter Eleven Through Chapter Twenty for who is not silent when someone is dead, who was a small bright boy? Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Have no doubt it is fear in his eyes. You see, my brother, there is no proof that my son or this other young man was there at all. [W]e do what is in us, and why it is in us, that is also a secret. It is Christ in us, crying that men may be succoured and forgiven, even when He Himself is forsaken. Old man, leave him alone. You lead him so far and then you spring upon him. Quotes From Chapter Twenty Through Chapter Thirty It is not permissible to add to ones possessions if these things can only be done at the cost of other men. Such development has only one true name, and that is exploitation. The truth is, our civilization is not Christian; it is a tragic compound of great ideal and fearful practice, of loving charity and fearful clutching of possessions. In a land of fear this incorruptibility is like a lamp set upon a stand, giving light to all that are in the house. [T]his thing that is the heaviest thing of all my years, is the heaviest thing of all your years also. Nothing is ever quiet, except for fools. I shall care for your child, my son, even as if it were my own. I am a weak and sinful man, but God put His hands on me, that is all. Something deep is touched here, something that is good and deep. Forgive us all, for we all have trespasses. I have learned that kindness and love can pay for pain and suffering. Quotes From Chapter Thirty-One Through Chapter Thirty-Five When you go, something bright will go out of Ndotsheni. that is a small angel from God. Although nothing has come yet, something is here already. One thing is about to be finished, but here is something that is only begun. But when the dawn will come, of our emancipation, from the fear of bondage and the bondage of fear, why, that is a secret.