High aims and pure motives, however laudable in themselves,
will surely not suffice if unsupported by measures that are practicable and
methods that are sound. Wealth of sentiment, abundance of good will and effort,
will prove of little avail if we should fail to exercise discrimination and
restraint and neglect to direct their flow along the most profitable channels.
The unfettered freedom of the individual should be tempered with mutual
consultation and sacrifice, and the spirit of initiative and enterprise should
be reinforced by a deeper realization of the supreme necessity for concerted
action and a fuller devotion to the common weal.
- Shoghi Effendi (From a
message dated June 3rd, 1925, addressed to the delegates and visitors to the
Baha’i Convention, Green Acre, Maine; Baha’i News, no. 6, July-August 1925;
‘Baha’i Administration’)
