Suppression, doubtless, eases the way of authority, for scepticism is always painful, and to arrive at a conclusion after careful testing of evidence always involves the possibility that authority may have to admit that its conclusions are mistaken.
This quote illustrates Laski's view that authority prefers suppression over the discomfort of questioning its conclusions.
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More from Harold J. Laski
Each age makes some idol in its own image and sacrifices upon its altar the freedom of those who refuse it worship.
Each age finds that the incidence of freedom is significant at some special point, and there, once more, the lesson of freedom has to be learned.
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.
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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