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Liberal Quotes

Browse 103 quotes about Liberal.

Liberal Quotes

“YOU ARE JUST You are not just for the right or left, but for what is right over the wrong. You are not just rich or poor, but always wealthy in the mind and heart. You are not perfect, but flawed. You are flawed, but you are just. You may just be conscious human, but you are also a magnificent reflection of God.”

LoveLifeMindHeartPhilosophyGodTruthSpiritualFaithSpiritualityUniversePoliticsLeftLeadershipWealthJusticePoorEducationAttitudeBeautyKnowledgePowerCourageAwarenessSelf EsteemPoetPerspectiveConfidenceMoralityPoemHumanReflectionConsciousPerfectionOneselfConservativeGoodWriterSelf MotivationWrongImperfectionState Of MindImperfectRightPoliticiansFlawedTeachersPolitical PhilosophyLibrariesRight And WrongRight PathRepublicansDemocratsJustLiberalFairReflectTrue WealthFlawMiddle WayNeutralPolitical PartyPolitical PoemEducatingMagificentStand By
Book:Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem
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“The foundation of morality on the human sentiments of what is acceptable behavior versus repulsive behavior has always made morals susceptible to change. Much of what was repulsive 100 years ago is normal today, and - although it may be a slippery slope - what is repulsive today is possible to be normal 100 years into tomorrow; the human standard has always been but to push the envelope. In this way, all generations are linked, and one can only hope that every extremist, self-proclaimed progressive is considering this ultimate 'Utopia' to which his kindness will lead at the end of the chain.”

LovePhilosophyPastLawTimeReligionHumanitySpiritualityEvilPoliticsPeaceChangeFreedomCompassionKindnessPsychologyFateGenerationsSocietyAtheismMankindMoralityFutureBehaviorEternityFoundationConservativeGoodGood And EvilConsiderationMortalityTemporaryWrongPresentRightSkepticismStatus QuoDoomUtopiaExtremismComprehensionProgressionDescendantsRight And WrongNormalityTheismAncestorsApologeticsLiberalLawlessnessSlippery SlopeEraStandardPeriodAgesSkepticism And Religion
Book:Healology
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“Upon the whole, Chymistry is as yet but an opening science, closely connected with the useful and ornamental arts, and worthy the attention of the liberal mind. And it must always become more and more so: for though it is only of late, that it has been looked upon in that light, the great progress already made in Chymical knowledge, gives us a pleasant prospect of rich additions to it. The Science is now studied on solid and rational grounds. While our knowledge is imperfect, it is apt to run into error: but Experiment is the thread that will lead us out of the labyrinth.”

MindArtScienceKnowledgeStudyRichProgressChemistryImperfectLabyrinthExperimentLiberalUsefulProspect
Author:Joseph Black
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“At present, the successful office-seeker is a good deal like the center of the earth; he weighs nothing himself, but draws everything else to him. There are so many societies, so many churches, so many isms, that it is almost impossible for an independent man to succeed in a political career. Candidates are forced to pretend that they are catholics with protestant proclivities, or christians with liberal tendencies, or temperance men who now and then take a glass of wine, or, that although not members of any church their wives are, and that they subscribe liberally to all. The result of all this is that we reward hypocrisy and elect men entirely destitute of real principle; and this will never change until the people become grand enough to allow each other to do their own thinking. Our government should be entirely and purely secular. The religious views of a candidate should be kept entirely out of sight. He should not be compelled to give his opinion as to the inspiration of the bible, the propriety of infant baptism, or the immaculate conception. All these things are private and personal. The people ought to be wise enough to select as their officers men who know something of political affairs, who comprehend the present greatness, and clearly perceive the future grandeur of our country. If we were in a storm at sea, with deck wave-washed and masts strained and bent with storm, and it was necessary to reef the top sail, we certainly would not ask the brave sailor who volunteered to go aloft, what his opinion was on the five points of Calvinism. Our government has nothing to do with religion. It is neither christian nor pagan; it is secular. But as long as the people persist in voting for or against men on account of their religious views, just so long will hypocrisy hold place and power. Just so long will the candidates crawl in the dust—hide their opinions, flatter those with whom they differ, pretend to agree with those whom they despise; and just so long will honest men be trampled under foot.”

ThinkingCountryWisdomInspirationGovernmentEarthPoliticsViewsOpinionSuccessfulWiseWifeSeaSocietyHonestyGreatnessFutureLiesWeightWineStormHypocrisyVotingDespiseGravitySecularCareerGrandeurPaganBaptismPersonalPrincipleLiberalCalvinismAnalogyPrivateVirgin BirthGrandImmaculate ConceptionFlatter
Book:Some Mistakes of Moses
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“• Scientific and medical studies, research or evidence is either distorted and misrepresented, or disputed or outright ignored by opponents whose views are threatened by the facts, in public shows of articles, statements, websites and even legislation. Scientific facts are ignored or dismissed as being ‘a liberal agenda’ or ‘merely propaganda’.”

FactsViewsResearchStatementsPropagandaArticlesLegislationAPublicAndInLiberalScientificOrStudiesDistortedWebsitesWhoseMisrepresentedOutright
Book:The Pink Community - The Facts
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“Odd Fellows Chamber Music for 2013 will be in October this year To Participants in the Odd Fellows Youth Chamber Music Project: Because an elevator is being installed at the Lodge, probably during August, we have to change the date: Instead of the two-week August program, we will be holding a weekend Baroque Festival in October, with an emphasis on Bach. There will be groups of all sizes and levels. The Program will take place on October 19th and 20th, 2013. We will rehearse from 9:30 AM to 12 Noon, and from 1 PM to 5PM, on Saturday. We’ll be feeding you during the lunch break. The performance will be at 3 PM on Sunday October 20th. Reception after. We’ll still be keeping one person on each part, and without Conductors. We will be sending out applications soon. Probably the deadline will be July 1st. Hope you all can make it. If you know of anyone who has played in the past who hasn’t gotten this invitation, please have them contact us. We’re trying not leave anyone out. Cathy O’Connor Ted Seitz Reality has a well-known liberal bias.”

FactsConservativeLiberal
Author:Stephen Co
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“The preachers and lecturers deal with men of straw, as they are men of straw themselves. Why, a free-spoken man, of sound lungs, cannot draw a long breath without causing your rotten institutions to come toppling down by the vacuum he makes. Your church is a baby-house made of blocks, and so of the state. ...The church, the state, the school, the magazine, think they are liberal and free! It is the freedom of a prison-yard.”

SchoolChurchPrisonFreeRottenSelf DeceptionStateLiberalPreachersMagazineStraw MenMen Of Straw
Book:I to Myself: An Annotated Selection from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau
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“The root of liberalism, in a word, is hatred of compulsion, for liberalism has the respect for the individual and his conscience and reason which the employment of coercion necessarily destroys. The liberal has faith in the individual – faith that he can be persuaded by rational means to beliefs compatible with social good.”

ReasonFaithIndividualRespectConscienceLiberalismRationalityCompulsionCoercionLiberalLost Generation
Book:Liberalism in America: Its Origin, Its Temporary Collapse, Its Future
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“The serpent’s objective is clear. He seeks to drive a wedge of doubt into Adam and Eve’s confidence in what God has told them. Satan knows the power of undermining a human being’s confidence in what God has revealed. Sadly, the serpent’s temptation was successful. Adam and Eve second-guessed God’s trustworthiness and then rejected his command. They sinned and ate the forbidden fruit. This was the beginning of the fallen world we all experience. All generations following would have a natural bent for rebelling against God and being skeptical or indifferent to what he has said. To this day, Satan’s objective has not changed. Though his questions look a little different at times, they all contain the same idea”

TruthDoubtBibleTemptationSatanApologeticsLiberal
Book:Clear Minds & Dirty Feet: A Reason To Hope, A Message To Share
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“Needless to say, there are people who hate Arabs, Somalis, and other immigrants from predominantly Muslim societies for racist reasons. But if you can’t distinguish that sort of blind bigotry from a hatred and concern for dangerous, divisive, and irrational ideas—like a belief in martyrdom, or a notion of male “honor” that entails the virtual enslavement of women and girls—you are doing real harm to our public conversation. Everything I have ever said about Islam refers to the content and consequences of its doctrine. And, again, I have always emphasized that its primary victims are innocent Muslims—especially women and girls.”

ThinkingIdeasReasonPhilosophyScienceReligionRaceProgressRepublicanRacismLogicDemocratIslamConservativeThoughtBigotryMuslimAdvancementCritical ThinkingRational ThinkingLiberalIslamophobiaImmigrantIslamism
Author:Sam Harris
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“Giants in Jeans Sonnet 53 If you call me liberal, You have understood nothing. If you call me conservative, You have understood nothing. If you call me religious, You have understood nothing. If you call me atheist, You have understood nothing. If you call me communist, You have understood nothing. If you call me capitalist, You have understood nothing. You’ll never find me in your fancy ideology, You'll know me by taking pain to wipe another's agony.”

HumanismConservativeHumanitarianSocialismService Of HumanityPolitical ScienceSonnetReformerLiberalBook Of Poems
Book:Giants in Jeans: 100 Sonnets of United Earth
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“Woke and cancel culture are both signs of a judgmental culture, not a mentally mature one. A world where you cannot even speak to another person without worrying about what they are going to think of you, has not advanced much from the days when the white people used to own slaves. Let me tell you this, if you are kind, if you are compassionate, if you hold no discrimination towards people whatsoever, then you have no reason to worry about whether you are woke enough.”

KindnessBrainy QuotesHumanismConservativeDiscriminationReasoningWokeLiberalCancel CultureWoke Culture
Book:When Veins Ignite: Either Integration or Degradation
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“I am not left or right, I am a human. And if someone sounds more aligned with my ideas, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are left, it just means they have a more practical, community-centric and self-correcting grasp of humanity than those who are self-absorbed, self-righteous and self-serving.”

RepublicanBrainy QuotesHumanismConservativeIdeologyOnenessLiberalismIndivisibleDemocratsLiberal
Book:When Veins Ignite: Either Integration or Degradation
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“The conservatives are fools: They whine about the decay of traditional values, yet they enthusiastically support technological progress and economic growth. Apparently it never occurs to them that you can't make rapid, drastic changes in the technology and the economy of a society without causing rapid changes in all other aspects of the society as well, and that such rapid changes inevitably break down traditional values.”

CultureIndividualChangeTechnologyEconomySocietyRepublicanTraditionDemocratConservativeTraditionalReformConservatismPopular CultureInconsistencyLiberalIndustrializationProgressivismTraditional Values
Book:Industrial Society and Its Future
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“What did liberals do that was so offensive to the Republican Party? I'll tell you what they did. Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote. Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended segregation. Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. Liberals created Medicare. Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water act. What did conservatives do? They opposed them on every one of those things, everyone. So when you try to hurl that label at my feet, ‘liberal,' as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty, something to run away from, it won't work, because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor.”

LovePoliticsCompassionLiberalismLiberal
Author:Lawrence O'Donnell Jr.
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“An imaginary circle of empathy is drawn by each person. It circumscribes the person at some distance, and corresponds to those things in the world that deserve empathy. I like the term "empathy" because it has spiritual overtones. A term like "sympathy" or "allegiance" might be more precise, but I want the chosen term to be slightly mystical, to suggest that we might not be able to fully understand what goes on between us and others, that we should leave open the possibility that the relationship can't be represented in a digital database. If someone falls within your circle of empathy, you wouldn't want to see him or her killed. Something that is clearly outside the circle is fair game. For instance, most people would place all other people within the circle, but most of us are willing to see bacteria killed when we brush our teeth, and certainly don't worry when we see an inanimate rock tossed aside to keep a trail clear. The tricky part is that some entities reside close to the edge of the circle. The deepest controversies often involve whether something or someone should lie just inside or just outside the circle. For instance, the idea of slavery depends on the placement of the slave outside the circle, to make some people nonhuman. Widening the circle to include all people and end slavery has been one of the epic strands of the human story - and it isn't quite over yet. A great many other controversies fit well in the model. The fight over abortion asks whether a fetus or embryo should be in the circle or not, and the animal rights debate asks the same about animals. When you change the contents of your circle, you change your conception of yourself. The center of the circle shifts as its perimeter is changed. The liberal impulse is to expand the circle, while conservatives tend to want to restrain or even contract the circle. Empathy Inflation and Metaphysical Ambiguity Are there any legitimate reasons not to expand the circle as much as possible? There are. To expand the circle indefinitely can lead to oppression, because the rights of potential entities (as perceived by only some people) can conflict with the rights of indisputably real people. An obvious example of this is found in the abortion debate. If outlawing abortions did not involve commandeering control of the bodies of other people (pregnant women, in this case), then there wouldn't be much controversy. We would find an easy accommodation. Empathy inflation can also lead to the lesser, but still substantial, evils of incompetence, trivialization, dishonesty, and narcissism. You cannot live, for example, without killing bacteria. Wouldn't you be projecting your own fantasies on single-cell organisms that would be indifferent to them at best? Doesn't it really become about you instead of the cause at that point?”

EmpathySlaveryConservativeAbortionLiberalCircle Of Empathy
Book:You Are Not a Gadget
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“Both political parties have moved to the right during the neoliberal period. Today’s New Democrats are pretty much what used to be called “moderate Republicans.” The “political revolution” that Bernie Sanders called for, rightly, would not have greatly surprised Dwight Eisenhower. The fate of the minimum wage illustrates what has been happening. Through the periods of high and egalitarian growth in the ‘50s and ‘60s, the minimum wage—which sets a floor for other wages—tracked productivity. That ended with the onset of neoliberal doctrine. Since then, the minimum wage has stagnated (in real value). Had it continued as before, it would probably be close to $20 per hour. Today, it is considered a political revolution to raise it to $15.”

AmericaPoliticalPoliticsGrowthMoneyBusinessUnited StatesEconomyRevolutionRepublicanCapitalismEuropeEconomicsLaborDemocratWorkersConservativeEntrepreneurshipRadicalUnited States Of AmericaEconomic GrowthMinimum WageBig BusinessNeoliberalismEntrepreneursLiberalNew DealEuropeanEisenhowerLabor Rights
Author:Noam Chomsky
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“Men often want to be known as gods, or, at the very least, to be their own gods; and indeed, they most definitely act as though they are gods...Which is to say: exigent, sure gods of (mass) confusion. In a political sense the liberal man is like one shouting over the voice of God thus making it difficult to hear God; the conservative man is like one standing in the way of God, making it difficult to see God.”

GodGovernmentTruthPoliticsUnderstandingPatienceConservativeConfusionBiasLiberal
Book:Healology
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“It turns out that indecision is a path itself; but figuratively, a vertical path - up or down - meaning it isn't always a fruitless path. One is forgotten, but the other is glorified. To be what they call 'middle-of-the-road' in most cases just means you have a hard time figuring out who between options is dumber. So quite often those who refused to decide were, after all, the bold individuals, the influential ones, the creative ones, those who snatched their own authority.”

PoliticsLeftDecisionCreativityMiddleRepublicanAuthorityIndependentIndependenceDemocraticConservativeRightRefusalInfluentialIndecisionIndependent ThoughtLiberalIndividualsMiddle Of The Road
Book:Killosophy
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“The problem is politics is made a sport, almost as much a sport as football or baseball. When it comes to politics, adults and politicians do more finger-pointing and play more games than children ever do. Too often are we rooting for the pride of a team rather than the good of the nation.”

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Book:Healology
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“Совет, что художникам лучше бы следовало не так много думать - а ведь всякая свобода безусловно приводит их к размышлению, - не более чем адаптированный и выпотрошенный массовой культурой траур по утраченной наивности.”

SocietyLiberalNaivete
Book:Philosophy of New Music
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“If groups could come together in low-anxiety situations, they discovered, these strangers would have the chance to empathize with one another... Most policies are enacted witht he assumption that a change in attitude will lead to a change in behaviour, but in the case of intergroup conflict, it is the change in behaviour- in the form of contact - that will most likely change attitudes.”

PoliticalPsychologyEvolutionary PsychologyLiberalSurvival Of The FriendliestBrian HareVanessa Woods
Author:Brian Hare Vanessa Woods
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“The young are often savvy in the cultural world but not so much the intellectual; the old the intellectual but not so much the cultural. But I tell you those who do the most damage during an era are very much aware of both.”

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Book:Killosophy
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“Civil society is, indeed, composed of individuals, acting freely.... But freedom entails responsibility, founded in the sentiments of sympathy that make us strive to look on our own and others' conduct from the standpoint of the impartial judge. The institutions of law and government exist in order to assign responsibilities and to ensure that they are not evaded or abused. Of course, this is something that liberals [(i.e. classical liberal)] too will acknowledge. But the difference of emphasis is crucial to the conservative position. Conservatism is about freedom, yes. But it is also about the institutions and attitudes that shape the responsible citizen, and ensure that freedom is a benefit to us all. Conservatism is therefore also about the limits to freedom.”

GovernmentFreedomResponsibilityConservativeLiberalismCitizenshipConservatismCivil SocietyLiberal
Book:Conservatism: An Invitation to the Great Tradition
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“The assault on education began more than a century ago by industrialists and capitalists such as Andrew Carnegie. In 1891, Carnegie congratulated the graduates of the Pierce College of Business for being “fully occupied in obtaining a knowledge of shorthand and typewriting” rather than wasting time “upon dead languages.” The industrialist Richard Teller Crane was even more pointed in his 1911 dismissal of what humanists call the “life of the mind.” No one who has “a taste for literature has a right to be happy” because “the only men entitled to happiness… is those who are useful.” The arrival of industrialists on university boards of trustees began as early as the 1870s and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business offered the first academic credential in business administration in 1881. The capitalists, from the start, complained that universities were unprofitable. These early twentieth century capitalists, like heads of investment houses and hedge-fund managers, were, as Donoghue writes “motivated by an ethically based anti-intellectualism that transcended interest in the financial bottom line. Their distrust of the ideal of intellectual inquiry for its own sake, led them to insist that if universities were to be preserved at all, they must operate on a different set of principles from those governing the liberal arts.”

EducationAssaultArtsLiberalProfessor
Book:Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle
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“Safaris through ancestral memories teach me many things. The patterns, ahhh, the patterns. Liberal bigots are the ones who trouble me the most. I distrust extremes. Scratch a conservative and you find someone who prefers the past over any future. Scratch a liberal and find a closet aristocrat. It's true! Liberal governments always develop into aristocracies. The bureaucracies betray the true intent of people who from such governments. Right from the first, the little people who formed the governments which promised to equalize the social burdens found themselves suddenly in the hands of bureaucratic aristocracies. Of course, all bureaucracies follow this pattern, but what a hypocrisy to find this even under a communized banner.”

GovernmentConservativeHypocrisyLiberalHypocricyBureaucraciesAristocracies
Author:Frank Herbert
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“Leadership is largely ignored by recent liberal theorists. I suspect that the very idea of leadership has a non-egalitarian and authoritarian quality to it, best left to those (inspired by Max Webber) with a fascination for charisma or revolution; or left to fascists or management consultants and organisational psychologists. But this neglect by liberal theorists comes at a cost. Institutions and procedures are run by imperfect human beings and without ongoing maintenance, care and investment they decay. While I do not claim that 'leadership' is a sufficient response to the challenges of institutional decay and renewal, it may well be a necessary one.”

LeadershipInstitutionsRenewalLiberalAdam Smith
Book:The Scottish Enlightenment: Human Nature, Social Theory and Moral Philosophy: Essays in Honour of Christopher J. Berry
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“If by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people-their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties-someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal", then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal.”

PoliticsDemocratsLiberal
Book:Profiles in Courage
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