We do not work for men. We work for the land and the people. We do not even work for money.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes that our efforts should be aligned with the greater good of society and the environment rather than personal gain.
Alan Paton's quote highlights the idea that our work should be directed towards serving the community and the land itself, rather than merely for the benefit of individuals or profit. It suggests that true fulfillment comes from contributing to the well-being of people and the preservation of the earth rather than accumulating wealth or status. This perspective invites a sense of purpose in our endeavors, implying that our actions should reflect a commitment to collective progress and sustainability.
In practice
During a speech at a charity event, one might say, 'As Alan Paton once stated, we do not work for men, but for the land and the people, highlighting the importance of our contributions to society.'
Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that's 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 if he gives too much.
Ask yourself not if this or that is expedient, but if it is right.
One day in Johannesburg, and already the tribe was being rebuilt, the house and soul being restored.
What broke in a man when he could bring himself to kill another? What broke when he could bring himself to thrust down the knife into the warm flesh, to bring down the axe on the living head, to cleave down between the seeing eyes, to shoot the gun that would drive death into the beating heart?
It is not permissible to add to one's possesions if these things can only be done at the cost of other men. Such development has only one true name, and that is exploitation.
If you wrote a novel in South Africa which didn't concern the central issues, it wouldn't be worth publishing.
The world is nothing but my perception of it. I see only through myself. I hear only through the filter of my story.
It is not that the girl is unfit for everything, it is that she is not of this world.
All the choir of heaven and furniture of earth - in a word, all those bodies which compose the frame of the world - have not any subsistence without a mind.
It is in the movements of emotional crisis that human beings reveal themselves most accurately.
The magnitude of pleasure reaches its limit in the removal of all pain. When such pleasure is present, so long as it is uninterrupted, there is no pain either of body or of mind or of both together.
You never know yourself till you know more than your body.
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