The Moral Vision
Proceeding with Caution
~ 274 ~
Man is endowed with far greater brain power than
the elephant. No one lights a fire near reserves of
gun powder. No engine driver is careless in
shunting petrol bogies. But most of us tend to forget
that this is a principle to be followed in social life.
Every society is comprised of a variety of people
who create different types of environment. In every
society there are ‘marshy places’, there is ‘petrol’
there are ‘thorns’ and there are ‘pits’. The wise are
those who try to avoid such difficult, even explosive
situations, thus saving themselves from the
trammels of confrontation.
Those who have some goal or the other before them
never allow themselves to become enmeshed in
such things because that would mean being
diverted from their objective. A purposeful man
always looks ahead to the future,—straight forward
and not towards, right or left. He always thinks of
long-lasting consequences rather than momentary
considerations. He looks at things not from the
point of view of personal desires and whims, but
from the point of view of reality.
