Text, Audio, Video of Address |
"When the modern Western states were
created, the principle was proclaimed that governments are meant to serve man
and man lives to be free and to pursue happiness."
"In the process, however, one psychological detail has been overlooked: the
constant desire to have still more things and a still better life and the
struggle to attain them imprint many Western faces with worry and even
depression, though it is customary to conceal such feelings. Active and tense
competition fills all human thoughts without opening a way to free spiritual
development."
"A society which is based on the
letter of the law and never reaches any higher is taking very scarce advantage
of the high level of human possibilities. The letter of the law is too cold and
formal to have a beneficial influence on society. Whenever the tissue of life is
woven of legalistic relations, there is an atmosphere of moral mediocrity,
paralyzing man's noblest impulses. And it will be simply impossible to stand
through the trials of this threatening century with only the support of a
legalistic structure." |
