Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse Quotes

Both logically and historically the first point of attack is arbitrary government, and the first liberty to be secured is the right to be dealt with in accordance with law. A man who has no legal rights against another, but stands entirely at his disposal, to be treated according to his caprice, is a slave to that other.

The first condition of universal freedom, that is to say, is a measure of universal restraint. Without such restraint some men may be free but others will be unfree.

Excess of liberty contradicts itself. In short, there is no such thing; there is only liberty for one and restraint for another. If liberty then be regarded as a social ideal, the problem of establishing liberty must be a problem of organizing restraints; and thus the conception of a liberty which is to set an entire people free from its government appears to be a self-contradictory ideal.

To move towards harmony is the persistent impulse of the rational being, even if the goal lies always beyond the reach of accomplished effort.

The more a class is brought low, the greater its difficulty in rising again without assistance. For purposes of legislation the State has been exceedingly slow to accept this view.

Compulsion may be necessary for the purposes of external order, but it adds nothing to the inward life that is the true being of a man.

The best and the worst things that men do they do in the name of a religion. Some have supposed that only supernatural religion could mislead. The history of our own time shows that if men no longer believe in God they will make themselves gods of Power, of Evolution, of the Race, the Nation, or the State. In the name of such gods will they drench a continent with blood, and the youth will offer themselves up as willing martyrs.

If there is one law for the Government and another for it's subjects, one for noble and another for commoner, one for rich and another for poor, the law does not guarantee liberty for all.

He is a citizen of the world in that he represents his nation, which is a member of the community of the world.

The fancied clearness of Utopian vision is illusory, because its objects are artificial ideas and not living facts.

Great changes are not caused by ideas alone; but they are not effected without ideas.

There is no line drawn beyond which human obligations cease. There is no gulf across which the voice of human suffering cannot be heard, beyond which massacre and torture cease to be execrable. Simply as a patriot, again, a man should recognize that a nation may become great not merely by painting the map red, or extending her commerce beyond all precedent, but also as the champion of justice, the succourer of the oppressed, the established home of freedom.

Some men are much better and wiser than others, but experience seems to show that hardly any man is so much better than or wiser than others that he can permanently stand the test of irresponsible power over them.

What we possess has its intrinsic value, but how we came to possess it is also an important question.

To be effective men must act together, and to act together they must have a common understanding and a common object.