Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse Quotes

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

We need less of the fanatics of sectarianism and more of the unifying mind.

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

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.

At all times men have lived in societies, and ties of kinship and of simple neighbourhood underlie every form of social organization.

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

True consent is free consent, and full freedom of consent implies equality on the part of both parties to bargain.

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 modern state is the distinctive product of a unique civilization. But it is a product which is still in the making, and a part of the process is a struggle between old and new principles of social order.

Thirteen months ago, Mr. , who had surprised the world by joining Mr. 's , surprised it still further by coming forward with a proposal which would have rendered the work of the Tariff Commission superfluous. The object of the Commission was to draw up a scientific tariff, the essence of which was to be a nicely graduated scale of import duties adapted to the needs of British industry, as conceived by Mr. Chamberlain and his followers. Such a scheme, whatever its merits or demerits, must necessarily be complex in the last degree.

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.

Government must keep the ring, and leave it for individuals to play the game.

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.

The more the individual receives free scope for the play of his faculties, the more rapidly will society as a whole advance.

The Liberal does not meet opinions which he conceives to be false with toleration, as though they did not matter. He meets them with justice, and exacts for them a fair hearing as though they mattered just as much as his own.