Famous Quotes by J.M. Coetzee

To think with the mind of God is to refuse to let any instance of cruelty or misery pass unexplained or unexposed.

Pain is truth; all else is subject to doubt.

It is not easy to tell the truth about yourself when the truth will hurt.

We must cultivate, all of us, a certain ignorance, a certain blindness, or society will tear itself apart.

Because a women's beauty does not belong to her alone. It is part of the bounty she brings into the world.

The stronger a man is, the more he has to lose, and the more he values his sense of self-control.

There is no longer a land of beginnings and endings. Time is a fiction, we are all stories, and we write ourselves anew with each experience.

In times of crisis, the people's thinking must be given direction. Their thinking must be led by a master, by someone who knows what he is doing.

Not to have control is to be controlled.

A life lived in silence is a life of denial.

All creatures come into the world bringing with them the memory of justice.

There is a point at which we must give up the futile effort to justify the choices we have made. It simply does not matter anymore.

We all have our moments of weakness, and we should know them and confront them as we would confront a dangerous animal.

To the unthinkable, the mind must be closed, it must stay closed, or we will all go mad.