120 philosophical essays you must read in your life

Chapter 45

Chapter 3 Section 2 The Virtue of Restraint

[United States] Ruskin

Wise laws and proper restraint, though in a certain degree cumbersome to noble peoples, are, after all, not chains of restraint, but armor of protection, the embodiment of strength.Remember, it is this necessity of restraint, like that of labor, that deserves human admiration.

Every day, you can hear countless fools talking about freedom as if it were something glorious, when it is far from it.On the whole, in a broad sense, liberty is nothing to boast about, but an attribute of the lower animals.

No one, not even great men, can swim as freely as a fish.People can do something, but they must not do something, but fish can do whatever they want.The territory of the world is integrated into one body, and its total area is not as large as half the ocean; even if all the means of transportation in the world are used, it is still difficult to swim with the fins of fish in the water.

It is this restraint, and not liberty, that man prides himself on, if you think about it calmly; and, moreover, even the lower animals.

Butterflies are much freer than bees, but people appreciate bees more, isn't it because they are good at following certain rules of their own society?Liberty and restraint are two concepts, the latter is usually more virtuous, and therefore more honorable.

Indeed, with regard to such things, and others like them, you can never draw final conclusions simply from abstractions.For liberty and restraint, if you simply choose, are both good; otherwise, both are bad.

Of the two, however, what manifests the superior nature of man depends on restraint.Moreover, from the duties of angels to the work of insects, from the balance of stars to the gravitation of dust, the rights and honors of all beings and things belong to restraint and not to liberty.

The sun is not free, but the dead leaves are very free; the parts of the human body are not free, but the whole is very harmonious.On the contrary, if the parts are free, it will inevitably lead to the collapse of the whole.

【Together with you】

True freedom does not exist.Dancing in shackles can produce shocking power. The "Bible" says: "The first law of the kingdom of heaven is order." Observing a certain basic law of life or life is more in line with the connotation of freedom.Freedom is not the slack and indulgence of anarchism, the freedom to follow the laws of life allows us to taste the sweetness and uniqueness of it.In the process of growing up, teenagers should carefully understand the relationship between freedom and restraint, and strive to be both solemn and free and easy.A reputation is sometimes more like the brightest patch on a tattered garment.

(End of this chapter)