Harold J. Laski: “Tyranny flows easily from the accumulation of petty restrictions.”

Liberty means self-government, and self-government means the right of every man to be his own legislator.

There are realms of conduct within which, to be free, I must be permitted to act as I please; to be denied self-expression there, is to be denied freedom.

The main thing was to be rid of the Divine Right of kings.

But we cannot understand the eighteenth century, or its theories, unless we realize that its temper was still dominantly aristocratic.