Don't despair too much if you see beautiful things destroyed, if you see them perish. Because the best things are always growing in secret.
Interpretation
Even in the face of destruction, new and beautiful things are always being cultivated quietly.
This quote by Ben Okri emphasizes the idea that while it's easy to feel disheartened by the loss of beauty and good things in life, we must remember that there is a continual process of growth and renewal happening beneath the surface. It reassures us that after destruction, new forms of beauty and goodness are on their way to emerge, encouraging a hopeful perspective toward the future.
In practice
This quote could be shared during a motivational speech about resilience and recovery after challenges.
One human life is deeper than the ocean. Strange fishes and sea-monsters and mighty plants live in the rock-bed of our spirits. The whole of human history is an undiscovered continent deep in our souls. There are dolphins, plants that dream, magic birds inside us. The sky is inside us. The earth is in us.
Our time here is magic! It's the only space you have to realize whatever it is that is beautiful, whatever is true, whatever is great, whatever is potential, whatever is rare, whatever is unique, in. It's the only space.
I began my writing life as a poet, so poetry has always been fundamental. I evolved from poetry to journalism to stories to novels. But poetry was always there.
The acknowledged legislators of the world take the world as given. They dislike mysteries, for mysteries cannot be coded, or legislated, and wonder cannot be made into law. And so these legislators police the accepted frontiers of things.
We can still astonish the gods in humanity_x000D_ _x000D_ And be the stuff of future legends,_x000D_ _x000D_ If we but dare to be real,_x000D_ _x000D_ And have the courage to see_x000D_ _x000D_ That this is the time to dream_x000D_ _x000D_ The best dream of them all.
Politics is the art of the possible; creativity is the art of the impossible.
Look up from what you're doing and look around for a minute. See what a beautiful world you're in.
Whatever inspiration is, it's born from a continuous "I don't know.
I believe we have all been created for greater things than we can comprehend. The times call for great things, but great things in the noblest and most redemptive sense are predicted upon tolerance, love, respect, understanding, dignity, prayer, God.
I'd argue that in the last few decades in America, when people are asked what they hope the future will look like, they still turn to 'Star Trek.' They hope we put aside our differences and come together as humanity, that we rise above war, poverty, racism, and other problems that have beset us.
Like every New Yorker, I know this place is magic. I know this place is amazing. I know that we have come back time and time again from a great recession, from high crime rates, from 9/11, from crisis after crisis.
When the night is darkest, the stars come out.
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