New Year’s Message of China Morning Newspaper in 2025: Courage Is the Noblest Quality of a Person

Whether there is sunshine today or not, it is announcing the arrival of a new year. We start to celebrate, celebrating our cowardice that has enabled us to live a stable life throughout the year, and also celebrating our courage that has made this year memorable.

Celebration is not the exclusive privilege of human beings, but it has been "carried forward" by them. We celebrate the New Year, celebrate new life, and also celebrate still being alive.

All along, the world of human beings has been a bizarre and motley one. Some people step on others' heads and stand high above them, while some call on the poor who can hardly afford food to eat meat. Whether it's the fruits of labor or hard work, perhaps they will all become stepping stones for others someday.

When a baby is born, it will cry loudly. The old people in Xuefeng Mountain say that babies see the beginning of a life full of hardships, so they are complaining about the unfairness of fate. When the elderly pass away, the people in Xuefeng Mountain will surely make it as lively as possible. They think it's a liberation and a happy thing worth celebrating.

The villagers in Xuefeng Mountain have long understood life thoroughly. To live requires courage, the courage to face hardships and also the courage to face troubles.

Therefore, courage is especially important for human beings.

Courage is the noblest quality of a person. Ask your heart, how long has it been since we were last brave?

Be brave to love, be brave to say sorry to our closest relatives. Face the people we care about most with our sincerest hearts. Because in this world, no one is more worthy of our cherishing than them.

Be brave to say no to life, be brave to say no to power and injustice, be brave to strive and fight for the life we want. Because in this world, no one is more important than ourselves.

In the end, you and I have become "great" ostriches, burying our heads deeply in the sand, completely ignoring that we are already running naked in this world.

In the end, we can't bear to be with ourselves. When facing our children, we can no longer hold our heads high as we used to. We can't say that we have never been cowards.

If time could flow backwards, many people would become great. Perhaps, at some point, we all had such and such dreams and aspirations, and at some point, we all once longed to be someone who could change the world.

You and I can be ordinary, but we can't be mediocre, nor can we lose the courage and determination to pursue greatness. Of course, time can't go back, and the Yangtze River and the Yellow River won't flow backwards. Only by embracing courage can we create greatness that belongs to us and also to this era.

Be a brave person and become the master of your own life. Only life itself can dominate a great life. Be a brave person and say goodbye to the cowardly self. Since we can't live the way we want, at least we can think the way we want.

We need courage, and the nation also needs it. For the nation, each of us is an indispensable part. What we are like determines what the nation is like. If we are brave, the nation will be brave; if we are cowardly, the nation will be cowardly.

Whether to make the nation as brave as us or as cowardly as us depends on what you and I do. It's the right way to learn from outstanding nations, learn from brave people, get close to the truth, and keep company with conscience.

Learn from the heroes who resisted the invaders for eight years, and learn from all the heroes in the world who resisted invaders. No matter how the world changes, the truth will always be in our hearts.

This truth is the power of freedom, the call of courage. Likewise, this truth is also the power of light.

Be as fervent as light. Be as fearless as light.