I earnestly exhort you: let not your hearts be fettered by
the material things of this world; I charge you not to lie contentedly on the
beds of negligence, prisoners of matter, but to arise and free yourselves from
its chains!
The animal creation is captive to matter, God has given
freedom to man. The animal cannot escape the law of nature, whereas man may
control it, for he, containing nature, can rise above it.
(‘Abdu’l-Baha, from a
talk, Paris, October 24, 1911, ‘Paris Talks’)
