Ask yourself not if this or that is expedient, but if it is right.
Interpretation
This quote encourages individuals to prioritize moral correctness over practicality in decision-making.
Alan Paton's quote emphasizes the importance of considering the ethical implications of our actions rather than solely focusing on their expedience or practicality. It suggests that true wisdom lies in identifying what is right, thereby advocating for a moral compass that guides our choices, even when they may not be the easiest or most beneficial options in the short term.
In practice
In a leadership seminar discussing ethical challenges in business.
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.
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.
There is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills. These hills are grass-covered and rolling, and they are lovely beyond any singing of it.
Things that would have made fame of a less clever man seemed tricks in his hands. It is a mistake to do things too easily.
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.
He who has felt his own ruin will not imagine the case of any to be hopeless; nor will he think them too fallen to be worthy his regard.
Do not say a little in many words but a great deal in a few.
For I have learned that every heart will get_x000D_ What it prays for_x000D_ Most.
Those that have done nothing in life, are not qualified to judge of those that have done little
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