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Love Is The Expansion Of Two Natures In Such Fashion That Each Include The Other, Each Is Enriched By The Other. Love Is An Echo In The Feelings Of A Unity Subsisting Between Two Persons Which Is Founded Both On Likeness And On Complementary Differences. Without The Likeness There Would Be No Attraction; Without The Challenge Of The Complementary Differences There Could Not Be The Closer Interweaving And The Inextinguishable Mutual Interest Which Is The Characteristic Of All Deeper Relationships.

-Felix Adler

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Love Is The Expansion

Felix Adler

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Love Is The Expansion Of Two Natures In Such Fashion That Each Include The Other, Each Is Enriched By The Other. Love Is An Echo In The Feelings Of A Unity Subsisting Between Two Persons Which Is Founded Both On Likeness And On Complementary Differences. Without The Likeness There Would Be No Attraction; Without The Challenge Of The Complementary Differences There Could Not Be The Closer Interweaving And The Inextinguishable Mutual Interest Which Is The Characteristic Of All Deeper Relationships.

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Dogma Is The Convictions Of One Man Imposed Authoritatively Upon Others.

Ethical Religion Affirms The Continuity Of Progress Toward Moral Perfection. It Affirms That The Spiritual Development Of The Human Race Cannot Be Prematurely Cut Off, Either Gradually Or Suddenly; That Every Stone Of Offence Against Which We Stumble Is A Stepping-stone To Some Greater Good; That, At The End Of Days, If We Choose To Put It So, Or, Rather, In Some Sphere Beyond The World Of Space And Time, All The Rays Of Progress Will Be Summed And Centred In A Transcendent Focus.

The Office Of The Public Teacher Is An Unenviable And Thankless One.

In Order To Join Vigorously In The Moral Work Of The World I Must Believe That Somehow The Best I Can Accomplish Will Endure, Will Leave Its Trace On Things, Will Aid The Final Consummation.

For A Long Time The Conviction Has Been Dimly Felt In The Community That, Without Prejudice To Existing Institutions, The Legal Day Of Weekly Rest Might Be Employed To Advantage For Purposes Affecting The General Good.

Love Is The Expansion Of Two Natures In Such Fashion That Each Include The Other, Each Is Enriched By The Other. Love Is An Echo In The Feelings Of A Unity Subsisting Between Two Persons Which Is Founded Both On Likeness And On Complementary Differences. Without The Likeness There Would Be No Attraction; Without The Challenge Of The Complementary Differences There Could Not Be The Closer Interweaving And The Inextinguishable Mutual Interest Which Is The Characteristic Of All Deeper Relationships.

Act So As To Encourage The Best In Others, And By So Doing You Will Develop The Best In Yourself.

But Even Our Pleasures Are Calculated And Business Like. We Measure Our Enjoyments By The Sum Expended. Our Salons Are Often Little Better Than Bazaars Of Fashion.

When The Light Of The Sun Shines Through A Prism It Is Broken Into Beautiful Colours, And When The Prism Is Shattered, Still The Light Remains. So Does The Life Of Life Shine Resplendent In The Forms Of Our Friends, And So, When Their Forms Are Broken, Still Their Life Remains; And In That Life We Are United With Them; For The Life Of Their Life Is Also Our Life, And We Are One With Them By Ties Indissoluble.

It Is The Nature Of The Noble And The Good And The Wise That They Impart To Us Of Their Nobility And Their Goodness And Their Wisdom While They Live, Making It Natural For Us To Breathe The Air They Breathe And Giving Us Confidence In Our Own Untested Powers. And The Same Influence In More Ethereal Fashion They Continue To Exert After They Are Gone.

You Do Not Build Your Own Houses, Nor Make Your Own Garments, Nor Bake Your Own Bread, Simply Because You Know That If You Were To Attempt All These Things They Would All Be More Or Less Ill Done.

We Should Seek To Free The Moral Life From The Embarrassments And Entanglements In Which It Has Been Involved By The Quibbles Of The Schools And The Mutual Antagonisms Of The Sects; To Introduce Into It An Element Of Downrightness And Practical Earnestness; Above All, To Secure To The Modern World, In Its Struggle With Manifold Evil, The Boon Of Moral Unity, Despite Intellectual Diversity.

If You Desire Information On Some Point Of Law, You Are Not Likely To Ponder Over The Ponderous Tomes Of Legal Writers In Order To Obtain The Knowledge You Seek, By Your Own Unaided Efforts.

The Truth Which Has Made Us Free Will In The End Make Us Glad Also. Every Outcry Against The Oppression Of Some People By Other People, Or Against What Is Morally Hideous Is The Affirmation Of The Principle That A Human Being As Such Is Not To Be Violated. A Human Being Is Not To Be Handled As A Tool But Is To Be Respected And Revered.

The Past Speaks To Us In A Thousand Voices, Warning And Comforting, Animating And Stirring To Action.

People May Be Said To Resemble The Pieces Of A Puzzle, Each Unique, Yet Each Essential To Bring Out A Complete Picture.

I Believe In The Supreme Excellence Of Righteousness; I Believe That The Law Of Righteousness Will Triumph In The Universe Over All Evil; I Believe That In The Attempt To Fulfil The Law Of Righteousness, However Imperfect It Must Remain, Are To Be Found The Inspiration, The Consolation, And The Sanctification Of Human Existence. We Live In Order To Finish An, As Yet, Unfinished Universe, Unfinished So Far As The Human, That Is, The Highest Part Of It, Is Concerned. We Live In Order To Develop The Superior Qualities Of Man Which Are, As Yet, For The Most Part Latent.

The Freedom Of Thought Is A Sacred Right Of Every Individual Man, And Diversity Will Continue To Increase With The Progress, Refinement, And Differentiation Of The Human Intellect.

The Hero Is One Who Kindles A Great Light In The World, Who Sets Up Blazing Torches In The Dark Streets Of Life For Men To See By. The Saint Is The Man Who Walks Through The Dark Paths Of The World, Himself A Light.

Every Dogma, Every Philosophic Or Theological Creed, Was At Its Inception A Statement In Terms Of The Intellect Of A Certain Inner Experience.

The Unique Personality Which Is The Real Life In Me, I Can Not Gain Unless I Search For The Real Life, The Spiritual Quality, In Others. I Am Myself Spiritually Dead Unless I Reach Out To The Fine Quality Dormant In Others. For It Is Only With The God Enthroned In The Innermost Shrine Of The Other, That The God Hidden In Me, Will Consent To Appear.

There Is As Yet No Civilized Society, But Only A Society In The Process Of Becoming Civilized. There Is As Yet No Civilized Nation, But Only Nations In The Process Of Becoming Civilized. From This Standpoint, We Can Now Speak Of A Collective Task Of Humankind. The Task Of Humanity Is To Build A Genuine Civilization.

We Cannot Adopt The Way Of Living That Was Satisfactory A Hundred Years Ago. The World In Which We Live Has Changed, And We Must Change With It.

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Admitting The Force Of These Contentions, Nevertheless, The Custom Of Meeting Together In Public Assembly For The Consideration Of The Most Serious, The Most Exalted Topics Of Human Interest Is Too Vitally Precious To Be Lost.

Few Are There That Will Leave The Secure Seclusion Of The Scholar's Life, The Peaceful Walks Of Literature And Learning, To Stand Out A Target For The Criticism Of Unkind And Hostile Minds.

Perhaps A Hundred People Assembled One Evening, May 15, 1876, At The Time When The Country Was Celebrating The Hundredth Anniversary Of Its Political Independence.

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The Human Race May Be Compared To A Writer. At The Outset A Writer Has Often Only A Vague General Notion Of The Plan Of His Work, And Of The Thought He Intends To Elaborate. As He Proceeds, Penetrating His Material, Laboring To Express Himself Fitly, He Lays A Firmer Grasp On His Thought; He Finds Himself. So The Human Race Is Writing Its Story, Finding Itself, Discovering Its Own Underlying Purpose, Revising, Recasting A Tale Pathetic Often, Yet None The Less Sublime.

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Painful Experiences

For More Than Three Thousand Years Men Have Quarreled Concerning The Formulas Of Their Faith. The Earth Has Been Drenched With Blood Shed In This Cause, The Face Of Day Darkened With The Blackness Of The Crimes Perpetrated In Its Name.

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No One Can Fail To See That The Power Of The Church Among Large Numbers In Many Communities Is Today Diminishing, Or Has Already Ceased.

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An Anxious Unrest, A Fierce Craving Desire For Gain Has Taken Possession Of The Commercial World, And In Instances No Longer Rare The Most Precious And Permanent Goods Of Human Life Have Been Madly Sacrificed In The Interests Of Momentary Enrichment.

As The Light Of Morning Strikes Now One Peak And Then Another, Some Being Illuminated While Others Are In The Shadow, So The Light Of The Essential Moral Principle Shines Now Upon One Duty And Then Upon Another, While Others Are In The Shadow.

Love Is The Expansion Of Two Natures In Such Fashion That Each Include The Other, Each Is Enriched By The Other.

Inspirational Love

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It Is Written That The Last Enemy To Be Vanquished Is Death. We Should Begin Early In Life To Vanquish This Enemy By Obliterating Every Trace Of The Fear Of Death From Our Minds. Then Can We Turn To Life And Fill The Whole Horizon Of Our Souls With It, Turn With Added Zest To All The Serious Tasks Which It Imposes And To The Pure Delights Which Here And There It Affords.

It May Be Impossible For A Man By Merely Willing It To Add Wings To His Body, But It Is Possible For Any Man, By Merely Willing It, To Add Wings To His Soul. This Perennial Miracle Of The Moral Nature Is Capable Of Happening At Any Time.

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