Life has not taught me to expect nothing, but she 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.

I have one great fear in my heart, that one day when they (the whites of South Africa) have turned to loving, they will find we (the blacks) are turned to hating.

Who knows for what we live, 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.

To give up the task of reforming society is to give up one's responsibility as a free man.

If you wrote a novel in South Africa which didn't concern the central issues, it wouldn't be worth publishing.