Political Quotes

On the record
We cannot rule it out because it is not ours; that is the error of autocracy which insists upon the a priori rightness of its own experience.
Said by
Harold J. Laski

Editor's note · Context

Laski warns against the autocratic mindset that dismisses other experiences and insists on the superiority of its own.

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More from Harold J. Laski

In a time of crisis, particularly, when the things we hold most dear are threatened, we shall find the desire to throw overboard the habits of tolerance, almost irresistible.

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

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

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The charge that he supported the Revolution in America and deserted it in France is without meaning; for in the one there is no word that can honorably be twisted to support the other.

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