Harold J. Laski: “Scepticism, it may be, is a dissolvent of enthusiasm; but enthusiasm…”

On the record

Scepticism, it may be, is a dissolvent of enthusiasm; but enthusiasm has always been the enemy of freedom.

Said by

Harold J. Laski

Source

Laski posits that while scepticism can undermine enthusiasm, enthusiasm itself can be detrimental to freedom.

More from Harold J. Laski

Yet that does not render useless, even for our own day, the kind of work Locke did.

He showed that government by discussion can be made to illuminate great principles.

Its eldest child is charity, and without it there can be no honesty of opinion.

The contract is thus not general as with Hobbes but limited and specific in character.

Other voices in this conversation

Harold J. Laski: “Scepticism, it may be, is a dissolvent of enthusiasm; but enthusiasm has always been the enemy of freedom.”