When the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again.
Edith HamiltonRead
Responsibility is the price every man must pay for freedom.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True freedom comes with the obligation of responsibility.
This quote suggests that freedom is not free; it requires individuals to take on responsibilities. Responsibility ensures that personal freedom does not infringe on the rights and freedoms of others, thus fostering a harmonious society where everyone can enjoy their freedoms safely and respectfully.
Themes
ResponsibilityFreedomObligationIndividualitySociety
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about civic duty, one might say this quote to emphasize the importance of active participation in democracy.
More from Edith Hamilton
All quotes βThe power of good is shown not by triumphantly conquering evil, but by continuing to resist evil while facing certain defeat.
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Theories that go counter to the facts of human nature are foredoomed.
Edith HamiltonRead
To rejoice in life, to find the world beautiful ... was a mark of the Greek spirit.
Edith HamiltonRead
So far, we do not seem appalled at the prospect of exactly the same kind of education being applied to all the school children from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but there is an uneasiness in the air, a realization that the individual is growing less easy to find; an idea, perhaps, of what standardization might become when the units are not machines, but human beings.
Edith HamiltonRead
Pain is the most individualized thing on earth. It is true that it is the great common bond as well, but that realization only comes when it is over. To suffer is to be alone. To watch another suffer is to know the barrier that shuts each of us away by himself Only individuals can suffer.
Edith HamiltonRead
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Well, if crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight?
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It is through the tender austerity of our troubles that the Son of Man comes knocking. In every event He seeks an entrance to my heart, yes, even in my most helpless, futile, fruitless moments. The very cracks and empty crannies of my life, my perplexities and hurts and botched-up jobs, He wants to fill with Himself, His joy, His life...He urges me to learn of Him: 'I am gentle and humble in heart.
Elisabeth ElliotRead
It is a time when oneβs spirit is subdued and sad, one knows not why; when the past seems a storm-swept desolation, life a vanity and a burden, and the future but a way to death. It is a time when one is filled with vague longings; when one dreams of flight to peaceful islands in the remote solitudes of the sea, or folds his hands and says, What is the use of struggling, and toiling and worrying any more? let us give it all up.
Mark TwainRead
Mark you, if you give up spirituality, leaving it aside to go after the materializing civilization of the West, the result will be that in three generations you will be an extinct race; because the backbone of the nation will be broken, the foundation upon which the national edifice has been built will be undermined, and the result will be annihilation all round.
Swami VivekanandaRead
What am I, Life? A thing of watery salt Held in cohesion by unresting cells, Which work they know not why, which never halt, Myself unwitting where their Master dwells?
John MasefieldRead