The Desire Not To Be Impinged Upon,

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.

Few Things Have Done More Harm Than The Belief On The Part Of Individuals Or Groups (or Tribes Or States Or Nations Or Churches) That He Or She Or They Are In Sole Possession Of The Truth: Especially About How To Live, What To Be And Do - And That Those Who Differ From Them Are Not Merely Mistaken, But Wicked Or Mad: And Need Restraining Or Suppressing.

When A Man Speaks Of The Need For Realism One May Be Sure That This Is Always The Prelude To Some Bloody Deed.

The Fundamental Sense Of Freedom Is Freedom From Chains, From Imprisonment, From Enslavement By Others. The Rest Is Extension Of This Sense, Or Else Metaphor.

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.