From the fact that people are very different it follows that, if we treat them equally, the result must be inequality in their actual position, and that the only way to place them in an equal position would be to treat them differently. Equality before the law and material equality are therefore not only different but are in conflict which each other; and we can achieve either one or the other, but not both at the same time.
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...whenever it is necessary that one of several conflicting opinions should prevail and when one would have to be made read more
...whenever it is necessary that one of several conflicting opinions should prevail and when one would have to be made to prevail by force if need be, it is less wasteful to determine which has the stronger support by counting numbers than by fighting. Democracy is the only method of peaceful change that man has yet been discovered.
Where freedom is real, equality is the passion of the masses. Where equality is real, freedom is the passion of read more
Where freedom is real, equality is the passion of the masses. Where equality is real, freedom is the passion of a small minority.
No intelligent man has any respect for an unjust law.
No intelligent man has any respect for an unjust law.
It is a dangerous and idle dream to think that the state can become rule by philosophers turned kings or read more
It is a dangerous and idle dream to think that the state can become rule by philosophers turned kings or scientists turned commissars. For if philosophers become kings or scientists commissars, they become politicians, and the powers given to the state are powers given to men who are rulers of states, men subject to all the limitations and temptations of their dangerous craft. Unless this is borne in mind, there will be a dangerous optimistic tendency to sweep aside doubts and fears as irrelevant, since, in the state that the projectors have in mind, power will be exercised by men of a wisdom and degree of moral virtue that we have not yet seen. It won't. It will be exercised by men who will be men first and rulers next and scientists and saints long after.
The multitude is always in the wrong.
The multitude is always in the wrong.
Without liberty, law loses its nature and its name, and becomes oppression. Without law, liberty also loses its nature and read more
Without liberty, law loses its nature and its name, and becomes oppression. Without law, liberty also loses its nature and its name, and becomes licentiousness.
...democracy can be interpreted to assert not only equality before the law but also essentialistic identity in all respects. This read more
...democracy can be interpreted to assert not only equality before the law but also essentialistic identity in all respects. This is expressed in the claim, "All men are created equal," which is something very different from the statement, "All men have equal rights and are equal before the law." Anyone who believes in the genetic uniqueness of every individual thereby believes in the conclusion, "No two individuals are created equal.".
Socialism is Bolshevism with a shave.
Socialism is Bolshevism with a shave.
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.
