On the record
The power it exercised lacked that horizon of the past through which alone it suffers limitation to right ends.
Said by
Harold J. Laski
Source
gutenberg.orgHarold J. Laski: “The power it exercised lacked that horizon of the past through which alone it suffers limitation to right ends.”
Editor's note · Context
Laski critiques the revolutionary power's lack of historical context, which limits its effectiveness and moral direction.
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We grant toleration in one part of the field only to deny it in another.
He is able, accordingly, to indulge in the twofold luxury not only of preserving his own authority, but also of assisting the persons attacked to enter, if they so choose, the way of truth.
Ultimately, that denial is always made upon the same ground: it is insisted that the doctrines or practices attacked are subversive of the civil order.
The only way to deal with novelty is to understand it, and the only way to deal with grievance is to seek a remedy for the complaint it embodies.
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