“An act has no ethical quality whatever unless it be chosen out of several all equally possible.”

1900s, The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses (1900), National Duties
Context: Besides each one of us working individually, all of us have got to work together. We cannot possibly do our best work as a nation unless all of us know how to act in combination as well as how to act each individually for himself. The acting in combination can take many forms, but of course its most effective form must be when it comes in the shape of law —that is, of action by the community as a whole through the lawmaking body.

Source: One-Dimensional Man (1964), p. 125

Source: A Sand County Almanac, 1949, "Wildlife in American Culture", p. 178.

IX, 23
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book IX
Context: As thou thyself art a component part of a social system, so let every act of thine be a component part of social life. Whatever act of thine that has no reference, either immediately or remotely, to a social end, this tears asunder thy life, and does not allow it to be one, and it is of the nature of a mutiny, just as when in a popular assembly a man acting by himself stands apart from the general agreement.

I – The Good General.
"Generals and Generalship" (1939)

Kenneth Noland, p. 10
Conversation with Karen Wilkin' (1986-1988)

Source: The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

Gopal Bhargava in: Child Labour http://books.google.co.in/books?id=6iYmX2k6G-MC&pg=PA96, Gyan Publishing House, 1 January 2003, P.96

1980s, First term of office (1981–1985), Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation (1983)