John W. Campbell quotes - page 5

A State which is incompetent to satisfy different races condemns itself; a State which labours to neutralise, to absorb, or to expel them, destroys its own vitality; a State which does not include them is destitute of the chief basis of self-government. The theory of nationality, therefore, is a retrograde step in history. (John W. Campbell)
In ancient times the State absorbed authorities not its own, and intruded on the domain of personal freedom. In the Middle Ages it possessed too little authority, and suffered others to intrude. Modern States fall habitually into both excesses. The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities. Liberty, by this definition, is the essential condition and guardian of religion... View quote
John W. Campbell
A government which cannot be reformed does not merit to be preserved. View quote
John W. Campbell
Democracy is government of the strongest, just as military despotism is. This is a bond of connection between the two. They are the brutal forms of government and as strength and authority go together, necessarily arbitrarily. View quote
John W. Campbell
The strongest of all the obstacles to progress, the reign of the dead. View quote
John W. Campbell
Property, not Conscience, is the basis of liberty. For the defence of Conscience need not arise. Property is always exposed to State interference. It is the constant object of policy. View quote
John W. Campbell
If it can be shown that the majority of women will probably be Liberal, or that they will divide equally, I should say that the balance is, very slightly, in favour of giving them votes. View quote
John W. Campbell
The yeoman farmers of the United States have always been the strength of the republic. View quote
John W. Campbell
The English constitution was excellent until removed by foreign writers into the domain of theory, when in direct contradiction with its nature and origin it came to be admired as a common representative government. View quote
John W. Campbell
We must not pursue science for ends independent of science. It must be pursued for its own sake, and must lead to its own results. View quote
John W. Campbell
The lesson of modern history-that Religions enjoy (are endowed with) the prerogative of perpetual youth while philosophies seldom outlast a generation. (John W. Campbell)
The early history of the world is the history of a few great men. Their Wirkungskreis is immense-vaster than that of God himself. View quote
John W. Campbell
The only resistance ever made to Louis XIV was from religion. View quote
John W. Campbell
Religious liberty came not from the Reformation or from the sects as a whole but from particular sects...especially those which the Reformation sought to exterminate. View quote
John W. Campbell
What one hears in Ranke. The whisper of statecraft. Not the tramp of democracy's earthquake feet. Not the dull roar of surging opinion. View quote
John W. Campbell
Liberalism is really opposed to liberty. ... Modern liberalism in England as well as abroad, in America as well as in Europe, has done more to destroy liberty than monarchy has done. View quote
John W. Campbell
[I]t will not do to act as if the moral question was not the supreme question in public life, and, in a sense, the vera causa of party conflict. View quote
John W. Campbell
The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern. The law of liberty tends to abolish the reign of race over race, of faith over faith, of class over class. View quote
John W. Campbell
Liberty, next to religion has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime, from the sowing of the seed at Athens, two thousand four hundred and sixty years ago, until the ripened harvest was gathered by men of our race. View quote
John W. Campbell
The worst criminals were not the men who did the deed. The crime of mobs and courtiers, infuriated by the lust of vengeance and of power, is not so strange a portent as the exultation of peaceful men, influenced by no present injury or momentary rage, but by the permanent and incurable perversion of moral sense wrought by a distorted piety. View quote
John W. Campbell
And remember, where you have a concentration of power in a few hands, all too frequently men with the mentality of gangsters get control. History has proven that. (John W. Campbell)
Socialism means slavery. View quote
John W. Campbell
A wise person does at once, what a fool does at last. Both do the same thing; only at different times. View quote
John W. Campbell
Be not content with the best book; seek sidelights from the others; have no favourites. View quote
John W. Campbell
There is not a soul who does not have to beg alms of another, either a smile, a handshake, or a fond eye. View quote
John W. Campbell