For it is the dawn that has come, as it has come for a thousand centuries, never failing.
Interpretation
The dawn symbolizes new beginnings and hope that has persisted through the ages.
This quote by Alan Paton reflects the enduring nature of hope and renewal. Just as dawn arrives without fail after darkness, it serves as a reminder that every day brings new opportunities and the chance to start afresh, echoing the cyclical nature of life that has been witnessed throughout history.
In practice
In a motivational speech about resilience, you could reference this quote to emphasize the importance of embracing new beginnings.
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.
Each of us can work to change a small portion of events. And it's in the total of all those acts that the history of this generation will be written.
It's time for a new National Anthem. America is divided into two definite divisions. The easy thing to cop out with is sayin' black and white. You can see a black person. But now to get down to the nitty-gritty, it's getting' to be old and young - not the age, but the way of thinking. Old and new, actually... because there's so many even older people that took half their lives to reach a certain point that little kids understand now.
There is no way you're going to have an event like 9/11 and expect things to remain the same. They killed 3,000 people in New York on that day, and if they could have they would've killed 300,000.
Openings come quickly, sometimes, like blue space in running clouds. A complete overcast, then a blaze of light.
Insisting on living in your past will kill your future. Let it go.
After spending three or four years interacting with the Bush administration, I realized they were not taking any actions to deal with climate change. So, I decided to give one talk, and then it snowballed into another talk and eventually to even protesting and getting arrested.
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