On the record
Any such Procrustes’ bed of definition as this principle suggests seems to me, therefore, a quite wanton and foolish interference with freedom.
Said by
Harold J. Laski
Source
gutenberg.orgHarold J. Laski: “Any such Procrustes’ bed of definition as this principle suggests seems to me, therefore, a quite wanton and foolish…”
Editor's note · Context
Laski critiques rigid definitions that limit freedom, likening them to a Procrustean bed.
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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.
When attacks on liberty are political or economic, it is their motive rather than their nature that changes.
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…
It has been the historic character of persecution always to degrade the persecutor and to strengthen the persecuted by drawing attention to their claims.
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