virgin islands scene

The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it but what they become by it.
-- John Ruskin
 

 

Friday, January 14, 2000

Freedom to think

To be truly free requires that you make the often-difficult effort to think for yourself. Those who do not take the time or effort to sincerely seek the truth, open themselves up for tyranny and abuse.

A life of quality requires effort -- your own effort to think, to reason and to act with integrity. There is no way around that. Sincere effort and commitment lead to joy. Lack of effort will surely lead to suffering. It happens over and over again, day after day, in a million different ways.

True freedom is not freedom from, it is freedom to -- freedom to achieve, freedom to think and to reason, freedom to make a difference. The next time someone offers you some kind of effortless fulfillment, think about the absurdity of such an offer.

The fulfillment is in the effort. The freedom is in the responsibility. Learn from others, but don’t allow them to do your thinking for you. That’s your job. And your reward.

— Ralph Marston

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Copyright ©2000 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. All Rights Reserved. The Daily Motivator is provided for your personal, non-commercial use only. Other than personal sharing, please do not re-distribute without permission.