Those who feel that there are too many evils in the contemporary ways of living and of earning a livelihood, who sincerely deplore these evils, nevertheless often feel also that there is little or nothing they can do about it until society as a whole develops new and better ways. But this is only a first look at their situation; it reveals the appearance of it but not the reality. Do they really need to wait until the unlikely event of a wholesale and voluntary amendment takes place all around them? For the challenge today, as will be made clear in this book's later course, is not a social but an individual one. More men are free to take the first steps towards their own liberation from these evils than they usually realize. When their caution becomes excessive, it also becomes a vice. It may prevent them from making mistakes, but it also prevents them from doing anything at all--leading, in fact, to a kind of inertia. Even if they cannot do more, they can make a start to apply new ideals and then see what happens.
-- Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest > Chapter 5 : Self-Development > # 256
