Liberalism
Edmund Fawcett - Though often spoken of interchangeably, liberalism and democracy are distinct. Liberalism is about how power is to be controlled, how human life is to be improved and how people are to enjoy respect. Democracy is about who belongs in that happy circle of voice, progress and protection. Liberalism answers the question ‘How?’ Democracy answers ‘Who?’ Liberalism is about content; democracy about scope.
Edmund Fawcett - Liberal thought [can] rarely be disentangled from liberal practice.
Edmund Fawcett - Four ideas in particular seem to have guided liberals through their history.
The first is that the clash of interests and beliefs in society is inescapable. Social harmony, the nostalgic dream of conservatives and the brotherly hope of socialists, is neither achievable nor desirable – because harmony stifles creativity and blocks initiative. Meanwhile conflict, if tamed and put to use as competition in a stable political order, could bear fruit as argument, experiment and exchange.
Secondly, human power is not to be trusted. However well power behaves, it cannot be counted on to behave well. Be it the power of state, market, social majorities or ethical authorities, the superior power of some people over others tends inevitably to arbitrariness and domination unless resisted and checked. Preventing the domination of society by any one interest, faith or class is, accordingly, a cardinal liberal aim.
Liberals also hold that, contrary to traditional wisdom, human life can improve. Progress for the better is both possible and desirable, for society as a whole and for people one by one, through education above all, particularly moral education.
Finally, the framework of public life has to show everyone civic respect, whatever they believe and whoever they are. Such respect requires not intruding on people’s property or privacy; not obstructing their chosen aims and enterprises; and not excluding anyone from such protections and permissions because they’re useless to society or socially despised.
Edmund Fawcett - Liberalism’s aims and ideals remain what they always were: resistance to domineering power, faith in human progress and insistence on civic respect for people.
Learned Hand (1944) - The Spirit of Liberty is the Spirit which is not too sure that it is right.
Friedrich Hayek - The main merit of individualism is that it is a system under which bad men can do least harm.
Friedrich Hayek - What distinguishes a free from an unfree society is that in the former each individual has a recognized private sphere clearly distinct from the public sphere, and the private individual cannot be ordered about but is expected to obey only the rules which are equally applicable to all.
Tony Judt - If there was a lesson to be drawn from depression, fascism and war, it was this: uncertainty, elevated to the level of insecurity and collective fear – was the corrosive force that had threatened and might again threaten the liberal world.
Mark Koyama - In a liberal society, the freedom of individuals to pursue activities of which the majority disapprove is crucial. We might consider such activities frivolous, ill-conceived or even disgusting but we recognize that this doesn’t mean that they should be suppressed by the state.
Augustin Landier - Les trois piliers du libéralisme économique :
les incitations
les prix
le non-angélisme sur l'Etat.
Bertrand Russell - The fundamental difference between the liberal and the illiberal outlook is that the former regards all questions as open to discussion and all opinions as open to a greater or lesser measure of doubt, while the latter holds in advance that certain opinions are absolutely unquestionable, and that no argument against them must be allowed be heard. What is curious about this position is the belief that if impartial investigation were permitted it would lead men to the wrong conclusion, and that ignorance is, therfore, the only safeguard against error. This point of view cannot be accepted by any man who wishes reason rather than prejudice to govern human action.