To turn water into wine, and what is common into what is holy, is indeed the glory of Christianity.
Frederick William RobertsonRead
False notions of liberty are strangely common. People talk of it as if it meant the liberty of doing whatever one likes - whereas the only liberty that a man, worthy of the name of man, ought to ask for, is, to have all restrictions, inward and outward, removed that prevent his doing what he ought.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True liberty is about removing restrictions that prevent us from being our best selves, not doing whatever we want.
In this quote, Frederick William Robertson emphasizes that the common understanding of liberty as merely freedom to act as one pleases is misguided. Instead, he argues that true liberty involves the removal of both internal and external constraints that hinder individuals from realizing their moral and ethical obligations, hence promoting a higher sense of freedom aligned with one's true purpose.
Themes
LibertyFreedomRestrictionsObligationsPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech on the importance of personal growth, one might use this quote to illustrate the true essence of freedom.
More from Frederick William Robertson
All quotes →The one who will be found in trial capable of great acts of love is ever the one who is always doing considerate small ones.
Frederick William RobertsonRead
No one can be great, or good, or happy except through the inward efforts of themselves.
Frederick William RobertsonRead
In these two things the greatness of man consists, to have God dwelling in us as to impart His character to us, and to have Him dwelling in us, that we recognize His presence, and know that we are His, and He is ours. The one is salvation; the other, the assurance of it.
Frederick William RobertsonRead
The office of poetry is not to make us think accurately, but feel truly.
Frederick William RobertsonRead
There are three things in the world that deserve no mercy, hypocrisy, fraud, and tyranny.
Frederick William RobertsonRead
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The secret of Masonry, like the secret of life, can be known only by those who seek it, serve it, live it. It cannot be uttered; it can only be felt and acted. It is, in fact, an open secret, and each man knows it according to his quest and capacity. Like all things worth knowing, no one can know it for another and no man can know it alone.
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In the eyes of government we are just one race here. It is American.
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The cautious faith that never saws off a limb on which it is sitting, never learns that unattached limbs may find strange unaccountable ways of not falling.
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