A liberal is a man or a woman or a child who looks forward to a better day, a more read more

A liberal is a man or a woman or a child who looks forward to a better day, a more tranquil night, and a bright, infinite future.

...regrettable as it may seem to the idealist, the experience of history provides little warrant for the belief that real read more

...regrettable as it may seem to the idealist, the experience of history provides little warrant for the belief that real progress, and the freedom that makes progress possible, lies in unification. For where unification has been able to establish unity of ideas it has usually ended in uniformity, paralysing the growth of new ideas. And where the unification has merely brought about an artificial or imposed unity, its irksomeness has led through discord to disruption.Vitality springs from diversity- which makes for real progress so long as there is mutual toleration, based on the recognition that worse may come from an attempt to suppress differences than from acceptance of them. For this reason, the kind of peace that makes progress possible is best assured by the mutual checks created by a balance of forces- alike in the sphere of internal politics and of international relations.

I think most historians will agree that the part played by impulses of selfish, individual aggression in the holocausts of read more

I think most historians will agree that the part played by impulses of selfish, individual aggression in the holocausts of history was small; first and foremost, the slaughter was meant as an offering to the gods, to king and country, or the future happiness of mankind. The crimes of Caligula shrink to insignificance compared to the havoc wrought by Torquemada. The number of victims of robbers, highwaymen, rapists, gangsters and other criminals at any period of history is negligible compared to the massive numbers of those cheerfully slain in the name of the true religion, just policy, or correct ideology.

It profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world... but for Wales!

It profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world... but for Wales!

Absolute power turns its possessors not into a God but an anti-God. For God turned clay into men, while the read more

Absolute power turns its possessors not into a God but an anti-God. For God turned clay into men, while the absolute despot turns men into clay.

The right to be heard does not autmatically include the right to be taken seriously.

The right to be heard does not autmatically include the right to be taken seriously.

When the president does it, that means it is not illegal.

When the president does it, that means it is not illegal.

The celebration of unbounded individualism means, beyond some point, the acceptance of force- either private (crime, riot, vigilanteism) or public read more

The celebration of unbounded individualism means, beyond some point, the acceptance of force- either private (crime, riot, vigilanteism) or public (authoritarianism).

Don't one of you fire until you see the whites of their eyes."N.B.: A lesser-known version of this quotation was read more

Don't one of you fire until you see the whites of their eyes."N.B.: A lesser-known version of this quotation was supposedly said by Frederick the Great at Prague in 1757: "By push of bayonets, no firing till you see the whites of their eyes. - Battle of Bunker Hill, 1775.