"The terrible thing about our time
is precisely the ease with which theories can be put into practice.
The more perfect, the more idealistic the theories,
the more dreadful is their realization.
We are at last beginning to rediscover
what perhaps men knew better in very ancient times,
in primitive times before utopias were thought of:
that liberty is bound up with imperfection,
and that limitations, imperfections,
errors are not only unavoidable
but also salutary. The best is not the ideal.
Where what is theoretically best
is imposed on everyone as the norm,
then there is no longer any room even to be good.
The best, imposed as a norm, becomes evil.”
Thomas Merton
