In all things there must be order, but it must of such a kind as is possible to observe...to see a man burnt for doing as he thought right, harms the people, for this is a matter of conscience.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that order is essential, but it must allow for individual conscience and moral actions without leading to harm.
William The Silent highlights the tension between societal order and individual conscience. While order is necessary for a functioning society, it should not suppress individual beliefs and actions that are morally right. The harm caused when someone is punished for acting according to their conscience undermines the very fabric of society, as it disregards personal integrity and moral judgment.
In practice
A speaker at a community meeting could use this quote to emphasize the importance of ethical decision-making.
A healthy church is not a church that's perfect and without sin. It has not figured everything out. Rather, it's a church that continually strives to take God's side in the battle against the ungodly desires and deceits of the world, our flesh, and the devil. It's a church that continually seeks to conform itself to God's Word.
Many things about our bodies would not seem to us so filthy and obscene if we did not have the idea of nobility in our heads.
The virtues of a superior man are like the wind; the virtues of a common man are like the grass; the grass, when the wind passes over it, bends.
The world of men is dreaming, it has gone mad in its sleep, and a snake is strangling it, but it can't wake up.
From the point of view of the meditative traditions the entire society is suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Whence, then, this worship of the past? The centuries are conspirators against the sanity and authority of the soul.
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