because life slips away, and because I need for the rest of my journey a star that will not play false to me, a compass that will not lie.
Interpretation
Life is fleeting, and one requires guidance that is truthful and unwavering for the journey ahead.
In this quote, Alan Paton emphasizes the transient nature of life, suggesting that as it passes quickly, it's essential to seek a guiding principle or belief that remains steadfast. The imagery of a star and a compass signifies the need for reliable direction and truthfulness in one's life choices and experiences, implying that such guidance is crucial for navigating the complexities of existence.
In practice
This quote could be shared during a graduation speech to inspire graduates as they begin their life journeys.
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 my oldest boy was about 14, I started to talk to him about some of the mistakes I made in life, just to put a few dents in that shiny armor.
Dear mama, yo baby boys doing fine tell the homies I'm in heaven and they aint got hoods.
God has opened many doors of opportunity throughout my lifetime, but I believe the greatest of those doors was allowing me to be born in the United States of America.
This means that we have barely disembarked into life, that we've only just now been born, let's not fill our mouths with so many uncertain names, with so many sad labels, with so many pompous letters, with so much yours and mine, with so much signing of papers. I intend to confuse things, to unite them, make them new-born intermingle them, undress them, until the light of the world has the unity of the ocean, a generous wholeness, a fragrance alive and crackling.
Life's under no obligation to give us what we expect. We take what we get and are thankful it's no worse than it is.
He trudged along unknowing what he sought, And whistled as he went, for want of thought.
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