“You are fettered,” said Scrooge, trembling. “Tell me why?”
“I wear the chain I forged in life,” replied the Ghost. “I made it link by
link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my
own free will I wore it. Is its pattern strange to you?”
Scrooge trembled more and more.
“Or would you know,” pursued the Ghost, “the weight and length of the
strong coil you bear yourself? It was full as heavy and as long as this,
seven Christmas Eves ago. You have laboured on it, since. It is a
ponderous chain!..."
“But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,' faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself.
Business!' cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The deals of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”
Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
"Go now, write it on a tablet for them,
inscribe it on a scroll,
so that in the days to come
it may be a witness to them, for ever and ever.
For these are a rebellious people, deceitful children,
unwilling to listen to the instructions of the Lord.
They say to their seers,
‘Do not see!’
and to the prophets,
‘Say nothing of what is right!
Tell us only things that please us,
prophesy illusions."
Isaiah 30:8-10