QuoteProject
But the one thing that has power completely is love, because when a man loves, he seeks no power, and therefore he has power.
Alan Paton
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Love is the ultimate source of true power that negates the need for control or dominance.

This quote emphasizes the transformative nature of love, suggesting that when a person is motivated by love, they transcend the need for external power or control. Love empowers individuals in a profound way, fostering strength that comes from selflessness rather than dominance, indicating that true power lies in understanding and connectivity rather than authority.

Themes

LovePowerStrengthSelflessnessRelationships

In practice

Example use cases

In a wedding speech to highlight the importance of love in their relationship.

More from Alan Paton

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.
Alan PatonRead
Ask yourself not if this or that is expedient, but if it is right.
Alan PatonRead
One day in Johannesburg, and already the tribe was being rebuilt, the house and soul being restored.
Alan PatonRead
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?
Alan PatonRead
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.
Alan PatonRead
If you wrote a novel in South Africa which didn't concern the central issues, it wouldn't be worth publishing.
Alan PatonRead

Similar quotes

In the end it is nothing other than the loving kindness with which the woman cares for her child that makes the difference. Her concern concentrates on one thing just like the Buddhist practice of concentration. She thinks of nothing but her child, which is similar to Buddhist compassion. That must be why, although she created no other causes to bring about it, she was reborn in the Brahma heaven.
Gautama BuddhaRead
Long distance relationships are living proof that love is not just physical. I can feel you next to me even when you're thousands of miles away._x000D_ _x000D_ Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worst kind of suffering.
Paulo CoelhoRead
Your eyes in which I travel Have given to signs along the roads A meaning alien to the earth.
Paul EluardRead
SHE is neither pink nor pale, And she never will be all mine; She learned her hands in a fairy-tale, And her mouth on a valentine. She has more hair than she needs; In the sun ’tis a woe to me! And her voice is a string of colored beads, Or steps leading into the sea. She loves me all that she can, And her ways to my ways resign; But she was not made for any man, And she never will be all mine.
Edna St. Vincent MillayRead
It's possible to love a human being if you don't know them too well.
Charles BukowskiRead
Like you and your woman ain't gettin' along and you're in love. You can't sleep at nights. Your mind is on her - on whatever. You know, that's the blues. You can't hug that money at night. You can't kiss it.
John Lee HookerRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.

Quote by Alan Paton | QuoteProject