“First with the head, then with the heart.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“Always in life an idea starts small, it is only a sapling idea, but the vines will come and they will try to choke your idea so it cannot grow and it will die and you will never know you had a big idea, an idea so big it could have grown thirty meters through the dark canopy of leaves and touched the face of the sky.' He looked at me and continued. 'The vines are people who are afraid of originality, of new thinking. Most people you encounter will be vines; when you are a young plant they are very dangerous.' His piercing blue eyes looked into mine.' Always listen to yourself, Peekay. It is better to be wrong than simply to follow convention. If you are wrong, no matter, you have learned something and you grow stronger. If you are right, you have taken another step toward a fulfilling life.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“. . . besides love, independence of thought is the greatest gift an adult can give a child.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“The power of one is above all things the power to believe in yourself, ofen well beyond any latent ability you may have previously demonstrated. The mind is the athlete, the body is simply the means it uses to run faster or longer, jump higher, shoot straighter, kick better, swim harder, hit further, or box better.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“Always listen to yourself... It is better to be wrong than simply to follow convention.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“I have found in life that everything, no matter how bad, comes to an end.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“I learned that in each of us there burns a flame of independence that must never be allowed to go out. That as long as it exists within us we cannot be destroyed.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“But I was still alive, and in my book, where there's life, there's hope.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“Winning is a state of mind that embraces everything you do.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“First with the head, then with the heart, you'll be ahead from the start.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“When men can be made to hope, then they can be made to win.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“It is better just to get on with the business of living and minding your own business and maybe, if God likes the way you do things, he may just let you flower for a day or a night. But don't go pestering and begging and telling him all your stupid little sins, that way you will spoil his day.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“You've got to be quick on your feet in this world if you want to survive. Though once you know the rules, it is not too hard to play the game.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“Never take advice from a donkey.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“Let me conclude by saying in my experience the glittering prizes in life come more to those who persevere despite setback and disappointment than they do to the exceptionally gifted who, with the confidence of the talents bestowed upon them, often pursue the tasks leading to success with less determination.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“sometimes in life doing what we shouldn't do is the emergency”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“Pride is holding your head up high when everyone around you has theirs bowed. Courage is what makes you do it.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“Sometimes, very occasionally, you do your best boxing with your mouth.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“. . . God is too busy making the sun come up and go down and watching so the moon floats just right in the sky to be concerned with color . . . only man wants always God should be there to condemn this one and save that one. Always it is man who wants to make heaven and hell. God is too busy training the bees to make honey and every morning opening up all the new flowers for business.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“The man assumes the role of the loner, the thinker and the searching spirit who calls the privileged and the powerful to task. The power of one was the courage to remain separate, th think through the truth and not be beguiled by convention or the plausible arguments of those who expect to maintain power, whatever the cost.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“In teaching me independence of thought, they had given me the greatest gift an adult can give to a child besides love, and they had given me that also.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“Racism does not diminish with brains, it's a disease, a sickness, it may incubate in ignorance but it doesn't necessarily disappear with the gaining of wisdom!”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“You can't go feeding your hate on the past, it's not natural.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“As is so often the case with a legend, every incident has two possible interpretations, the plausible and the one that is molded to suit the making of the myth. Man is a romantic at heart and will always put aside dull, plodding reason for the excitement of an enigma. As Doc had pointed out, mystery, not logic, is what gives us hope and keeps us believing in a force greater than our own insignificance.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“Inside all people there is love, also the need to take care of the other man who is his brother. Inside everyone is a savage, but there is also happening tenderness and compassion.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“what is a german? to say a man is a german, what is that? does it tell you if he is a good man? or a bad man? no, my friend, it tells you nothing about a man to say he is german. a man must think what he is inside. what he is on the outside, how can this matter?”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“It's nothing to be ashamed of. There comes a time in everything when you don't know something.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“It's good to be a little frightened. It's good to respect your opponent. It keeps you sharp. In the fight game, the head rules the heart. But in the end the heart is the boss.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
“Good conversational debate is an end in itself, and talking for the love of conversation is what makes us human.”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One
Bryce Courtenay
Born place: in Johannesburg, South Africa
Born date August 14, 1933
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“...maybe it's only fitting that relationship that started with a lie would end with one.”
― Ally Carter, quote from I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You
“Don’t be all night about it,” she says. “Take turns—or get cozy and shower together, if that’s faster.”
― Marie Lu, quote from Prodigy
“When I was young I walked all over this country, east and west, and saw no other people than the Apaches. After many summers I walked again and found another race of people had come to take it. How is it? Why is it that the Apaches wait to die—that they carry their lives on their fingernails. They roam over the hills and plains and want the heavens to fall on them. The Apaches were once a great nation; they are now but few, and because of this they want to die and so carry their lives on their fingernails. Many have been killed in battle. You must speak straight so that your words may go as sunlight to our hearts. Tell me, if the Virgin Mary has walked throughout all the land, why has she never entered the wickiups of the Apaches? Why have we never seen or heard her?
“I have no father nor mother; I am alone in the world. No one cares for Cochise; that is why I do not care to live, and wish the rocks to fall on me and cover me up. If I had a father and mother like you, I would be with them and they with me”
― Dee Brown, quote from Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West
“There's so much humanity in a love of trees, so much nostalgia for our first sense of wonder, so much power in just feeling our own insignificance when we are surrounded by nature…yes, that's it: just thinking about trees and their indifferent majesty and our love for them teaches us how ridiculous we are - vile parasites squirming on the surface of the earth - and at the same time how deserving of life we can be, when we can honor this beauty that owes us nothing.”
― Muriel Barbery, quote from The Elegance of the Hedgehog
“As I see it, you are living with something that you keep hidden deep inside. Something heavy. I felt it from the first time I met you. You have a strong gaze, as if you have made up your mind about something. To tell you the truth, I myself carry such things around inside. Heavy things. That is how I can see it in you.”
― Haruki Murakami, quote from 1Q84
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