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.
On 16 September 1985, when the Commerce Department announced that the United States had become a debtor nation, the American Empire died.
How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?
I always liked the idea that America is a big facade. We are all insects crawling across on the shiny hood of a Cadillac. We're all looking at the wrapping. But we won't tear the wrapping to see what lies beneath.
The beautiful uncut hair of graves.
Capitalism without failure is like religion without sin. Bankruptcies and losses concentrate the mind on prudent behavior.
The grief of the keen is no personal complaint for the death of one woman over eighty years, but seems to contain the whole passionate rage that lurks somewhere in every native of the island.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.