A step at a time – Sunday, June 30, 1957
An eighteenth-century philosopher is credited with a searching sentence: “Freedom is as little lost in a day as won in a day.”1
There are many ways in which far-reaching changes can come, almost without our being aware of them. And often by small steps we arrive at results which earnestly we would have resisted if we had been brought there all the way at once.
Many things are accomplished a step at a time—both desirable things and undesirable things: for example, few men suddenly acquire a habit. They acquire habits first by doing something the first time, and then by a repeated and persistent process, which ultimately is just as complete as if it had come all at once.
In this manner men have often been led into accepting slavery of one kind or another, a step at a time: the slavery of habit, of custom, of comfort, of convenience, and of other kinds also. The road to most things lies along this course: a step at a time. And while one step in any direction may not of itself seem to be serious, any step in any direction should be considered seriously.
Before ever we take the first step, in anything, we ought to look where we would arrive if we were to take the second and the third, and all the rest that were to follow. (Furthermore, we must remember that in some things there is no half step.)
Not in anything should we take the first step, even if it is comfortable, or convenient, or attractive, or enticing, if the ultimate end is something which in principle we are or should be opposed to. Any trend in our own lives, in our own homes, in our communities, in our country—in our world—should be appraised not only for what it seems to be at the beginning, but also for what it could be at the other end. We should never walk blindly and irresponsibly toward any destination.
Whether it be in matters of personal habit or private venture or public policy, we have the right and responsibility to know where each step tends to take us, no matter how small the steps are or how easy they seem.
On any road that is going where we shouldn’t go, it is smarter and safer to stop before the first step—or to stop before any further step on any wrong road. *
1Jean Paul Richter -. Titan, CV, 1803
*Revised
June 30, 1957
Broadcast Number 1,454