...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.

In a democracy, dissent is an act of faith.

In a democracy, dissent is an act of faith.

Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues.

Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues.

In George Bush you get experience, and with me you get - The Future!

In George Bush you get experience, and with me you get - The Future!

The part of our social order which can or ought to be made a conscious product of human reason is read more

The part of our social order which can or ought to be made a conscious product of human reason is only a small part of all the forces of society.

The fact is that up to now a free society has not been good for the intellectual. It has neither read more

The fact is that up to now a free society has not been good for the intellectual. It has neither accorded him a superior status to sustain his confidence nor made it easy for him to acquire an unquestioned sense of social usefulness. For he derives his sense of usefulness mainly from directing, instructing, and planning- from minding other people's business- and is bound to feel superfluous and neglected where people believe themselves competent to manage individual and communal affairs, and are impatient of supervision and regulation. A free society is as much a threat to the intellectual's sense of worth as an automated economy is to the workingman's sense of worth. Any social order that can function with a minimum of leadership will be anathema to the intellectual.

It's a sad and stupid thing to have to proclaim yourself a revolutionary just to be a decent man.

It's a sad and stupid thing to have to proclaim yourself a revolutionary just to be a decent man.

The love of their country is with them only a mode of flattering its master; as soon as they think read more

The love of their country is with them only a mode of flattering its master; as soon as they think that master can no longer hear, they speak of everything with a frankness which is the more startling because those who listen to it become responsible.

Equality of the general rules of law and conduct, however, is the only kind of equality conducive to liberty and read more

Equality of the general rules of law and conduct, however, is the only kind of equality conducive to liberty and the only equality which we can secure without destroying liberty. Not only has liberty nothing to do with any other sort of equality, but it is even bound to produce inequality in many respects. This is the necessary result and part of the justification of individual liberty: if the result of individual liberty did not demonstrate that some manners of living are more successful than others, much of the case for it would vanish.