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.
Interpretation
The fear of losing love to hatred emphasizes the fragility of human connections.
This quote expresses a profound concern about the potential shift from love to hate in relationships. Alan Paton highlights the anxiety that arises when love is not reciprocated or is lost, suggesting that love can be easily turned to hatred if not nurtured with care and mutual respect. It serves as a reminder that maintaining love requires effort and understanding to prevent it from deteriorating into animosity.
In practice
During a discussion on the importance of empathy in relationships, this quote serves to remind us of the consequences of neglecting love.
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.
I know what it's like when you are a refugee, living on the mercy of others and having to adjust.
More non-fringe, non-radical homosexuals emerge into public view every day. As the stereotype of the homosexual as antisocial deviant crumbles, a (political) party or faction that tolerates gay-baiting rhetoric in the name of 'family values' makes 'family values' look more and more like common bigotry.
Suddenly, I don't know what to say. It happens often to me. I know what I want to say, I think about whether it is what I mean, but when the moment comes to speak, I can't say it. - Nana Kleinfrankenheim, Vivre Sa Vie.
As for becoming queen, it was never on the forefront of my mind when I married my husband. It was a long way off, that thought.
It is shaming sometimes how the body will not, or cannot, lie about emotions. Who, for decorumβs sake, has ever slowed his heart, or muted a blush?
Marriage is an effort to legalize love. It is out of fear. It is thinking about the future, about the tomorrows. Man always thinks of the past and the future, and because of this constant thinking about past and future, he destroys the present. And the present is the only reality there is. One has to live in the present. The past has to die and has to be allowed to die.
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