Bernard Crick Quotes

If, of course, one builds into the concept of an 'individual' all that Professor Hayek does in his Road To Serfdom, Individualism and Economic Order and many other works, which is, to put it briefly, the whole of laisser-faire economic theory, then plainly man as such a programmed predator has very little interest in being fraternal, or very little chance.

The method of rule of the tyrant and the oligarch is quite simply to clobber, coerce, or overawe all or most other groups in the interest of their own.

Quite apart from the prestige of technology, people do, after all, prefer a simple idea to a complex one.

The idea of a rational bureaucracy, of skill, merit, and consistency, is essential to all modern states.

Politics has rough manners, but it is a very useful thing.

There is no great danger to politics in the desire for certainty at any price.

The unique character of political activity lies, quite literally, in its publicity.

Totalitarianism surpasses autocracy.

Too often the revolutionary is the man who must create order in the chaos left by failed conservatives.

The politician has no more use for pride than Falstaff had for honour.

Where government is impossible, politics is impossible.

Since the business of politics is the conciliation of differing interests, justice must not merely be done, but to be seen to be done.

Factory workers are not working for capitalism, they are working for a living wage.

Politics is too often regarded as a poor relation, inherently dependent and subsidiary; it is rarely praised as something with a life and character of its own.

BOREDOM with established truths is a great enemy of free men.