But when the dawn will come, of our emancipation, from the fear of bondage and the bondage of fear, why, that is a secret.
Interpretation
True freedom comes from overcoming both fear of being trapped and the reality of feeling trapped.
In this quote, Alan Paton reflects on the complex nature of freedom and the fears that bind us. He suggests that emancipation is not merely about escaping physical bondage, but also about releasing ourselves from the psychological chains of fear that dictate our lives. The 'dawn' symbolizes a new understanding or realization that will reveal the path to true freedom, which remains elusive and mysterious.
In practice
This quote can inspire a speech about overcoming personal fears.
Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that's the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing. Nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him if he gives too much.
Ask yourself not if this or that is expedient, but if it is right.
One day in Johannesburg, and already the tribe was being rebuilt, the house and soul being restored.
What broke in a man when he could bring himself to kill another? What broke when he could bring himself to thrust down the knife into the warm flesh, to bring down the axe on the living head, to cleave down between the seeing eyes, to shoot the gun that would drive death into the beating heart?
It is not permissible to add to one's possesions if these things can only be done at the cost of other men. Such development has only one true name, and that is exploitation.
If you wrote a novel in South Africa which didn't concern the central issues, it wouldn't be worth publishing.
When we read about Creation in Genesis, we run the risk of imagining God was a magician, with a magic wand able to do everything. But that is not so. God is not a demiurge [demigod] or a magician, but the Creator who gives being to all entities. Evolution in nature is not opposed to the notion of Creation, because evolution presupposes the creation of beings that evolve.
In rivers, the water that you touch is the last of what has passed and the first of that which comes; so with present time.
It's always easier for people to face backward than to face forward.
I ground my faith upon God's word, and not upon the church.
Our fathers knew that the flag was never intended to protect any man who wanted to assail it.
It seemed impossible that there could be people in the world who still desired food, who laughed, who neither knew nor cared that Sirius Black was gone forever.
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