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Full Idea
The more perfect one is, the more one is determined to the good, and so is more free at the same time. ...Our power and knowledge are more extended, and our will much the more limited within the bounds of perfect reason.
Gist of Idea
If we know what is good or rational, our knowledge is extended, and our free will restricted
Source
Gottfried Leibniz (Letters to Pierre Bayle [1702], 1702)
Book Ref
Leibniz,Gottfried: 'Leibniz Selections', ed/tr. Wiener,Philip P. [Scribners 1951], p.182
A Reaction
I like this idea, which seems to me to derive from Aquinas. When I choose to eat and drink each day, or agree that 7+5 is 12, I don't complain about my lack of freedom in the choices. Goodness and reason are constraints I welcome.
Related Idea
Idea 1855 If we saw something as totally and utterly good, we would be compelled to will it [Aquinas]