Who knows for what we live, and struggle, and die?... Wise men write many books, in words too hard to understand. But this, the purpose of our lives, the end of all our struggle, is beyond all human wisdom.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the deep and complex purpose of life, suggesting it transcends human understanding.
Alan Paton's quote delves into the existential questions of life, emphasizing that the true purpose behind our existence is a profound mystery that cannot be fully grasped by human intellect. While wise individuals may attempt to articulate life's meaning through complex writings, the essence of why we live, struggle, and ultimately die remains elusive and beyond the limits of our wisdom.
In practice
In a graduation speech, to inspire students to seek their own purpose.
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.
Here was what Kilgore Trout cried out to me in my father's voice: "Make me young, make me young, make me young!
Guilt is perhaps the most painful companion of death.
To make a deliberate falsification for personal gain is the last, worst depth to which either scholar or artist can descend in work or life.
Let me say that I don't see any conflict between science and religion. I go to church as many other scientists do. I share with most religious people a sense of mystery and wonder at the universe and I want to participate in religious ritual and practices because they're something that all humans can share.
The possession of power inevitably spoils the free use of reason.
A people armed and free, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition and is a bulwark for the nation against foreign invasion and domestic oppression.
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