Life May Be Seen Through

Liberty Is Liberty, Not Equality Or Fairness Or Justice Or Human Happiness Or A Quiet Conscience.

Utopias Have Their Value -- Nothing So Wonderfully Expands The Imaginative Horizons Of Human Potentialities -- But As Guides To Conduct They Can Prove Literally Fatal.

The History Of Society Is The History Of The Inventive Labors That Man Alter Man, Alter His Desires, Habits, Outlook, Relationships Both To Other Men And To Physical Nature, With Which Man Is In Perpetual Physical And Technological Metabolism.

If, As I Believe, The Ends Of Men Are Many, And Not All Of Them Are In Principle Compatible With Each Other, Then The Possibility Of Conflict - And Of Tragedy - Can Never Wholly Be Eliminated From Human Life, Either Personal Or Social. The Necessity Of Choosing Between Absolute Claims Is Then An Inescapable Characteristic Of The Human Condition. This Gives Its Value To Freedom As Acton Conceived Of It - As An End In Itself, And Not As A Temporary Need, Arising Out Of Our Confused Notions And Irrational And Disordered Lives, A Predicament Which A Panacea Could One Day Put Right.

Those Who Have Ever Valued Liberty For Its Own Sake Believed That To Be Free To Choose, And Not To Be Chosen For, Is An Inalienable Ingredient In What Makes Human Beings Human.