It is unfortunate that Americans are no longer aware of what the constitution says and what their rights are. Because of that we are often very passive about what happens when the government violates those rights.
Active Evil is better than Passive Good.
Uncontrolled the hunger and thirst after God may become an obstacle cutting off the soul from what it desires. If a man would travel far along the mystic road he must learn to desire God intensely but in stillness passively and yet with all his heart and mind and strength.
Infuse your life with action. Don't wait for it to happen. Make it happen. Make your own future. Make your own hope. Make your own love. And whatever your beliefs honor your creator not by passively waiting for grace to come down from upon high but by doing what you can to make grace happen... yourself right now right down here on Earth.
If all Church power vests in the clergy then the people are practically bound to passive obedience in all matters of faith and practice for all right of private judgment is then denied.
Faith is not simply a patience that passively suffers until the storm is past. Rather it is a spirit that bears things - with resignations yes but above all with blazing serene hope.
The crucial question one comes back to is the examination without that experience is meaningless. And I think it's true that society is becoming more and more passive less and less fired up with enthusiasm in many spheres.
All observers not laboring under hallucinations of the senses are agreed or can be made to agree about facts of sensible experience through evidence toward which the intellect is merely passive and over which the individual will and character have no control.
Corporate America cannot afford to remain silent or passive about the downward spiral we are undergoing. It cannot turn a blind eye to how difficult the experience of life is for so many of their customers.
The traveler was active he went strenuously in search of people of adventure of experience. The tourist is passive he expects interesting things to happen to him. He goes 'sight-seeing.'