Quotes Library

May 10, 2025

I respect fidelity to colleagues even though they are fit for the hangman.

Harold Laski (1893-1950), British Labour politician and academic, letter to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. 4 December 1926, Jay p.218

Do you? Or don’t you?

You must! In governments that move by majority vote, every colleague is needed by you, and you by them, to achieve any legislative goal. Ignore everything else unless your fidelity puts you at genuine risk of being hanged.


More Quotes

December 31, 2025
01:09
Civilization is nothing else but the attempt to reduce force to being the last resort.
March 14, 2025
[Of political life] The hatreds which sound so real when you read the words, which look so true when you see their scornful attitudes
November 4, 2025
If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master.
Page 114 of 122