Freedom is inseparably connected with the idea of love. It would be impossible for man to develop either love or freedom without the possibility of sailing down into the abyss. A man unable, of his own free decision, to choose good or evil, would be a being who would only be led on a leading-string to a good which must be attained of necessity and who had no power to choose the good of his own fully purified will, by the love which springs from freedom. […]
The possibility of freedom could be given on no other condition than that man himself has to make the free choice between good and evil.
Source: Rudolf Steiner – GA 104 – The Apocalypse of John: Lecture XII – Nuremberg – 30th June 1908
Translated by M. Cotterell
Previously posted on November 23, 2016