Harold Laski Quotes

#1. A second-class mind dealing with third-class material is hardly a necessity of life.

Harold Laski

#2. Aside from theology and sex there is really nothing to talk about.

Harold Laski

#3. No citizen enjoys genuine freedom of religious conviction until the state is indifferent to every form of religious outlook from Atheism to Zoroastrianism.

Harold Laski

#4. Every State is known by the rights it maintains.

Harold Laski

#5. The only real security for social well-being is the free exercise of men's minds.

Harold Laski

#6. A State divided into a small number of rich and a large number of poor will always develop a government manipulated by the rich to protect the amenities represented by their property.

Harold Laski

#7. The number of substitutes for fine and clean thinking the world provides positively gnaws at one's vitals.

Harold Laski

#8. The test, surely, of a creed is not the ability of those who accept it to announce their faith; its test is its ability to change their behavior in the ordinary round of daily life. Judged by that test, I know no religion that has a moral claim upon the allegiance of men.

Harold Laski

#9. Without equality, I say, there cannot be liberty.

Harold Laski

#10. A healthy loyalty is not passive and complacent, but active and critical.

Harold Laski

#11. It would be madness to let the purposes or the methods of private enterprise set the habits of the age of atomic energy.

Harold Laski

#12. If there is one thing fundamental to the life of the spirit it is the absence of force.

Harold Laski

#13. If it weren't for the law, I would steal books; if it weren't for my purse, I would buy them.

Harold Laski

#14. Those who know the normal life of the poor ... will realize well enough that without economic security, liberty is not worth having.

Harold Laski

#15. Civilization means, above all, an unwillingness to inflict unnecessary pain ... those of us who heedlessly accept the commands of authority cannot yet claim to be civilized men.

Harold Laski

#16. Historically, means cannot be separated from ends ...

Harold Laski