“Often I have found that the one thing that can save is the thing which appears most to threaten … one has to go down into what one most fears and in that process … comes a saving flicker of light and energy that even if it does not produce the courage of a hero at any rate enables a trembling mortal to take one step further.”
— Laurens Van der Post
“Organized religion is making Christianity political rather than making politics Christian.”
— Laurens Van der Post
“It’s the not-yet in the now, the taste of the fruit that does not-yet exist, hanging the blossom on the bough.”
— Laurens van der Post
“The Bushmen in the Kalahari Desert talk about the two “hungers”. There is the Great Hunger and there is the Little Hunger. The Little Hunger wants food for the belly; but the Great Hunger, the greatest hunger of all, is the hunger for meaning…There is ultimately only one thing that makes human beings deeply and profoundly bitter, and that is to have thrust upon them a life without meaning.There is nothing wrong in searching for happiness. But of far more comfort to the soul is something greater than happiness or unhappiness, and that is meaning. Because meaning transfigures all. Once what you are doing has for you meaning, it is irrelevant whether you’re happy or unhappy. You are content – you are not alone in your Spirit – you belong.”
— Laurens van der Post
“Modern man has lost the sense of wonderabout the unknown and he treats it asan enemy.”
— Laurens van der Post