Political Quotes

Harold J. Laski: “At what point, if any, do words become acts of which authority must take account to fulfil its primary duty of…”

On the record
At what point, if any, do words become acts of which authority must take account to fulfil its primary duty of maintaining the peace?
Said by
Harold J. Laski

Editor's note · Context

Here, Laski discusses the threshold at which words may necessitate governmental intervention to maintain peace.

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The intolerance may be Catholic, when it insists that a unity of outlook is essential for the preservation of society; or it may be Protestant when, as with Calvin and the Socinians, it holds that the blasphemous nature of the belief…

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The essence of the persecuting position is always that the persecutor has hold of truth and that he would betray its service by allowing it to be questioned.

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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.

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We grant toleration in one part of the field only to deny it in another.

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