Quotes about the New Year

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When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among brothers,
To make music in the heart.             ...Howard Thurman (1900-1981)

Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland.            ...Isaiah 43:18-19 NIV Bible

The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul.
           … G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936)

And now let us believe in a long year that is given to us, new, untouched, full of things that have never been, full of work that has never been done, full of tasks, claims, and demands; and let us see that we learn to take it without letting fall too much of what it has to bestow upon those who demand of it necessary, serious and great things.
           ... Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)

It is never too late to begin.  It is never too late to turn over a new leaf.  In spite of the atom bomb, the jet plane, the conflict with Russia , ten just people may still save a city.          ... Dorothy Day (1897-1980)

Because of the LORD'S great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.           ... Lamentations 3:22-3 NIV Bible

I suppose when we wake on January 1 the world will look the same. But there is a reminder of the Resurrection at the start of each new year, each new decade. That's why I also like sunrises, Mondays, and new seasons. God seems to be saying, "With me you can always start afresh."                …Ada Lum

Time has no divisions to mark its passage, there is never a thunderstorm or blare of trumpets to announce the beginning of a new month or year. Even when a new century begins it is only we mortals who ring bells and fire off pistols.
          ... Thomas Mann (1875-1955), The Magic Mountain, 1924

 And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:
"Give me a light, that I may tread safely into the unknown."
And he replied: "Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light, and safer than a known way."          ... Minnie L. Haskins (1875-1957), Introduction, "The Desert" c.1908,

 I see not a step before me as I tread on another year;
But I've left the past in God's keeping-the future his mercy shall clear;
And what looks dark in the distance may brighten as I draw near.          ...Mary Gardiner Brainard (c. 1860)