Political Quotes

Harold J. Laski: “True liberty is thus so far from being an absence of restraint that it is essentially subordination to a system of…”

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True liberty is thus so far from being an absence of restraint that it is essentially subordination to a system of rational purposes which receive their highest expression in the activity of the state.
Said by
Harold J. Laski

Editor's note · Context

Laski argues that true liberty involves a commitment to rational purposes, which are best expressed through the state.

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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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We grant it in religion to deny it in politics; we grant it in politics, to deny it in economic matters.

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Each age makes some idol in its own image and sacrifices upon its altar the freedom of those who refuse it worship.

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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.

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