To give up the task of reforming society is to give up one's responsibility as a free man.
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 wisd...
When men are ruled by fear they strive to prevent the very changes that will abate it.
Life has ... taught me not to expect success to be the inevitable result of my endeavors. She taught me to seek sustenance from the endeavor itself but to leave the result to God.
It is not permissible for us to go on destroying the family life when we know that we are destroying it.
He was reluctant to open it, for once such a thing is opened, it cannot be shut again.
For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much.
There is a hard law. When an injury is done to us, we never recover until we forgive.
I have always found that actively lovingsaves one from a morbid preoccupationwith the shortcomings of society.
Nothing is every quiet, except for fools.
I have always found that actively loving
But when that dawn will come, of our emancipation, from the fear of bondage and the bondage of fear, why, that is a secret.
Aye, even the name of a river that runs no more. Who indeed knows the secret of the earthly pilgrimage? Who knows for what we live, and struggle, and die? Who knows what keeps us living and struggling...
And what was there evil in their desires, in their hunger? That men should walk upright in the land where they were born, and be free to use the fruits of the earth, what was there evil in it? Yet men...
Because life slips away, and because I need for the rest of my journey a star that will not play false to me, a compass that will not lie.
The humble man reached in his pocket for his sacred book, and began to read. It was this world alone that was certain.
Stand unshod upon it, for the ground is holy, being even as it came from the Creator. Keep it, guard it, care for it, for it keeps men, guards men, cares for men. Destroy it and man is destroyed.
In the deserted harbour there is yet water that laps against the quays. In the dark and silent forest, there is a leaf that falls. Behind the polished panelling the white ant eats away the wood. Nothi...
But there is only one thing that has power completely, and this is love. Because when a man loves, he seeks no power, and therefore he has power.
And that next day, he was in the black mood, what we call the swartgalligheid, which is the black gall. And the heart is black too, and the world is black, and one can tell oneself that it will pass,...