Consider the pettiness of men's minds. They ask for that which injureth them, and cast
away the thing that profiteth them. They are, indeed, of those that are far astray. We find
some men desiring liberty, and priding themselves therein. Such men are in the depths of
ignorance.
Liberty must, in the end, lead to sedition, whose flames none can quench. Thus warneth
you He Who is the Reckoner, the All-Knowing. Know ye that the embodiment of liberty and its
symbol is the animal. That which beseemeth man is submission unto such restraints as will
protect him from his own ignorance, and guard him against the harm of the mischief-maker.
Liberty causeth man to overstep the bounds of propriety, and to infringe on the dignity of his
station. It debaseth him to the level of extreme depravity and wickedness.
Regard men as a flock of sheep that need a shepherd for their protection. This, verily,
is the truth, the certain truth. We approve of liberty in certain circumstances, and refuse to
sanction it in others. We, verily, are the All-Knowing.
Say: True liberty consisteth in man's submission unto My commandments, little as ye know
it. Were men to observe that which We have sent down unto them from the Heaven of Revelation,
they would, of a certainty, attain unto perfect liberty. Happy is the man that hath apprehended
the Purpose of God in whatever He hath revealed from the Heaven of His Will, that pervadeth all
created things. Say: The liberty that profiteth you is to be found nowhere except in complete
servitude unto God, the Eternal Truth. Whoso hath tasted of its sweetness will refuse to barter
it for all the dominion of earth and heaven.
Kitáb-i-Aqdas, Bahá'u'lláh