Desire, Reason, and Moderation

For desire is a flame that has reduced to ashes uncounted lifetime harvests of the learned, a devouring fire that even the vast sea of their accumulated knowledge could never quench. How often has it happened that an individual who was graced with every attribute of humanity and wore the jewel of true understanding, nevertheless followed after his passions until his excellent qualities passed beyond moderation and he was forced into excess. His pure intentions changed to evil ones, his attributes were no longer put to uses worthy of them, and the power of his desires turned him aside from righteousness and its rewards into ways that were dangerous and dark. A good character is in the sight of God and His chosen ones and the possessors of insight, the most excellent and praiseworthy of all things, but always on condition that its center of emanation should be reason and knowledge and its base should be true moderation. Were the implications of this subject to be developed as they deserve the work would grow too long and our main theme would be lost to view.
    (Abdu'l-Baha, The Secret of Divine Civilization, p. 59)

 

Car le désir est une flamme qui a réduit en cendres, pour de nombreux savants, l'oeuvre de toute une vie. C'est un feu dévorant que même le vaste océan de leurs connaissances accumulées ne put jamais éteindre. Combien de fois est-il arrivé qu'un individu, paré de tous les attributs de l'humanité et du joyau de la vraie compréhension, n'en ait pas moins poursuivi ses passions jusqu'à ce que ses excellentes qualités dépassent la modération et atteignent l'excès ? De pures, ses intentions devinrent mauvaises, ses qualités ne servirent plus des buts dignes d'elles et la force de ses désirs le détourna de la droiture et de ses récompenses pour le diriger dans de dangereuses et sombres voies. Aux yeux de Dieu, de ses élus et des gens éclairés, un bon caractère est la meilleure et la plus louable des choses, mais toujours à la condition que son centre d'émanation soit la raison et le savoir, et son principe, la vraie modération.

 
('Abdu'l-Baha, "Le secret de la civilisation divine", p. 83-84.)