John Paul II Strikes Again
A fun part of my job is distributing the a daily mail with a new word, special quote, and odd news story to my teammates. Over half of them asked me to continue with this task when I took a vote today so I buckled down and came up with a few. In looking for the quotes (using BrainyQuote exclusively as is my wont) I came across one that stood out:
"Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought." - Pope John Paul IIPrior to now I was fond of quoting France's Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789):
"Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else; hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no limits except those which assure to the other members of the society the enjoyment of the same rights. These limits can only be determined by law." (source)Upon reading the first quote I felt so much more enlightened, almost as if a dim light bulb had been replaced with a brighter one. The word "clarity" doesn't do the difference justice. Perhaps "profound clarity" would be apt. Such is the importance of these words, skillful in their humble presentation and provocative in their effect.
John Paul's plain words deftly challenges a truism that is at the heart of Western democracy. Of course, few have succeeded as a moral and social foil to government was well has the late Pope had. Debate his wisdom as you might, but quotes such as this will shape societies from now until Armageddon.
