Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
What are we allowed to do when we seek things we must do?
In plain terms
We question our freedom while pursuing obligations.
What can you take from it?
Examine constraints when balancing duty and desire.

Where it applies

  • career choices
  • personal projects

Putting it to work

  • list constraints
  • identify optional actions

Questions to consider

  • How do you define what you’re allowed to do?
  • When can you redefine obligations?

Another view

Sometimes duties are self‑imposed, not external.

More from Dave Eggers

  1. What did we want? We want the world smaller and bigger and just the same but advancing. We don't know what we want.

    Permalink to quote #19
  2. Humans are divided between those who can still look through the eyes of youth and those who cannot. Though it causes me frequent pain, I find it very easy to p…

    Permalink to quote #21
  3. When we pass by another person without telling them we love them it's cruel and wrong and we all know this.

    Permalink to quote #18

Related quotes

  1. Hearken with your ears to these best counsels, Reflect upon them with illumined judgment. Let each one choose his creed with that freedom of choice each must h…

    ZoroasterZoroaster quote #3
  2. 'Freedom would be not to choose between black and white but to abjure such prescribed choices.'

    Theodor AdornoTheodor Adorno quote #29
  3. What interest, zest, or excitement can there be in achieving the right way, unless we are enabled to feel that the wrong way is also a possible and a natural w…

    William JamesWilliam James quote #2