The essential characteristic of Western civilization that distinguishes it from the arrested and petrified civilizations of the East was and is its concern for freedom from the state. The history of the West, from the age of the Greek polis down to the present-day resistance to socialism, is essentially the history of the fight for liberty against the encroachments of the officeholders.
You May Also Like / View all maxioms
Make men wise, and by that very operation you make them free. Civil liberty follows as a consequence of this; read more
Make men wise, and by that very operation you make them free. Civil liberty follows as a consequence of this; no usurped power can stand against the artillery of opinion.
No intelligent man has any respect for an unjust law.
No intelligent man has any respect for an unjust law.
The political world is stimulating. It's the most interesting thing you can do. It beats following the dollar.
The political world is stimulating. It's the most interesting thing you can do. It beats following the dollar.
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.
What is possible is our highest duty.
What is possible is our highest duty.
Free institutions are not the property of any majority. They do not confer upon majorities unlimited powers. The rights of read more
Free institutions are not the property of any majority. They do not confer upon majorities unlimited powers. The rights of the majority are limited rights. They are limited not only by the constitutional guarantees but by the moral principle implied in those guarantees. That principle is that men may not use the facilities of liberty to impair them. No man may invoke a right in order to destroy it.
There must be no barriers for freedom of inquiry. There is no place for dogma in science. The scientist is read more
There must be no barriers for freedom of inquiry. There is no place for dogma in science. The scientist is free, and must be free to ask any question, to doubt any assertion, to seek for any evidence, to correct any errors.
Freedom released the energies of the masses not by exhilarating but by unbalancing, irritating, and goading.
Freedom released the energies of the masses not by exhilarating but by unbalancing, irritating, and goading.
We are anxious when there is a dissonance between our "knowledge" and the perceivable facts. Since our "knowledge" is not read more
We are anxious when there is a dissonance between our "knowledge" and the perceivable facts. Since our "knowledge" is not to be doubted or questioned, it is the facts that have to be altered...
