“[The Liberal Democrats] are unique in devising a political system which links the concept of fairness to an ideology which say not that “Jack is as good as his master” but rather “Jack should be his own master”. Richard Kemp

“Liberals must ever insist that each enlargement of the authority and functions of the State must justify itself as an enlargement of personal liberty, interfering with individuals only in order to set free new and larger opportunities.” J. A. Hobson 1909

“An ideal is as necessary to the reformer as the established fact is to the conservative… A progressive movement … must have an ideal, and an ethical idea for the future must be in so far abstract as it is not yet realised and embodied in social institutions.” L. T. Hobhouse. 1898

No distinction can be made between the right to life and the right to liberty, for there can be no right to mere life – no right to life on the part of a being that has not also the right to direct the life according to the motion of his own will. T. H. Green

“Freedom is not something that happens by accident. It happens by intervention or by refereeing the situation. And of course the greatest block to anybody’s freedom normally is poverty and a lack of resources.” Tim Farron

“If you cannot be free, be as free as you can.” Emerson

“Democracy … is not about the emergence of some unified view from “the people”, but is about organising conflict and living with conflict.” Ralf Dahrendorf

“[T]he greatest obstacles of all to the creation of a truly liberal society are the forces of cynicism, fatalism and despair. We need to meet those forces head on in a crusading spirit and with a conviction of the utter worth of human life and endeavour.” Ian Bradley

“The outstanding merit of Liberalism as a political creed – that it stands for the general interest – means that the Liberal party, unlike both its rivals, cannot count on automatic support from any sectional interest. It must build its own organisation for itself and its ideals.” William Beveridge

“Those who 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.” Isaiah Berlin

The first concern of our party must still be liberty – our challenge in the past has been how to enhance liberty whilst creating a just society – our new challenge comes from adding the words “and a safe environment too”. Paddy Ashdown

To celebrate the opening of the Land Registry www.theguardian.com/environment/... The land, the land, ‘twas god who made the land The land, the land the ground on which we stand Why should we be beggars with the ballot in our hand God made the land for the people

“Liberalism is a progressive force, and as it advances it learns, finding at every turn of the road new vistas of challenge and opportunity.” Elliott Dodds

“It is right that we should celebrate British citizenship, and [its] rights and responsibilities. If we built active community participation in our democratic process, with a sense of united community, ethnicity and multiculturalism would be less contentious.” Navnit Dholakia

“There is no state of affairs in which liberalism has been completely realised. Liberalism is forever process, the process by which human beings explore new opportunities for more people.” Ralf Dahrendorf

“Liberty of Conscience and Liberty of the Subject, - two as glorious things to be contended for, as any that God hath given us.” Oliver Cromwell

“If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.” Noam Chomsky

“The politics of the future are social politics and the problem is still how to secure the greatest happiness ... especially of those whom all previous legislation and reform seem to have left ... where they were before.” Joseph Chamberlain, discussing excluded people back in the nineteenth century

“[Liberalism] is about reinventing the British state so that it delivers social justice and environmental sustainability through a decentralised and participatory democracy.” Brack, Grayson and Howarth

The instinct of a Liberal is to distribute power as widely as possible, and to hold to account all those who exercise it. Alan Beith

“The faith of a liberal is a profound belief not only in the capacities of individual men and women, but also in the effectiveness of people helping each other.” F D Roosevelt

Our fight for civil liberties in Britain, our belief in a Bill of Rights ,our struggle for fair votes, our commitment to freedom of information, our demand for employee rights and shares, our determination to give people power in their own hands – all these are testimony of our faith. Paddy Ashdown

“If liberalism is to mean anything at all, it is duty bound to support without hesitation the dissenting individual over the group, the heretic over the orthodox, innovation over stagnation, and free speech over offense.” Maajid Nawaz

A quote about #PalestineAction “Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens.” Harry S. Truman

"I’ve always fought for ... strong communities and for a more caring society. And they’re the values that make me so proud of our party. And when I meet people acting out those values every day across our United Kingdom, it also makes me so proud to be British." Ed Davey

“The state represents physical force together with moral authority. The state is most civilised where moral authority is most potent and physical force least required.” John Morley

love is wise, hatred is foolish. ... We have to learn to put up with the fact that some people say things that we don't like. ..., we must learn a kind of charity and a kind of tolerance which is absolutely vital to the continuation of human life on this planet." Bertrand Russell

“When society requires to be rebuilt, there is no use in attempting to rebuild it on the old plan.” John Stuart Mill 1859 (Dissertations and discussions, political, philosophical and historical, vol 1)

“Liberalism stand for liberty; but it is an error to think that a policy of liberty must always be negative, that the state can help liberty only by abstaining from action … often more law may mean more liberty.” Liberal Party, Britain’s Industrial Future (the Yellow Book) 1928

“as liberals... our core values are: a passionate commitment to the rule of law, equally applied to all, the powerful and the weak, the rich and the poor; a passionate commitment to the rights of all human beings to freedom of expression, and a passionate commitment to social justice.” Simon Hughes

“Liberty remains a response to the fact that we live in a world of uncertainty.” Ralf Dahrendorf

“[T]he state should not impose a preferred way of life, but should leave its citizens as free as possible to choose their own values and ends, consistent with a similar liberty for others.” Michael Sandel, Liberalism and Its Critics

“I see the liberty of the individual not only as a great moral good in itself ... but also as the necessary condition for the flowering of all the other goods that people cherish: moral virtue, civilization, the arts and sciences, economic prosperity.” Murray N. Rothbard, Conceived in Liberty

Liberalism is not… An ideology based on power. Achieving power through the electoral process is a means to an end for the liberal rather than the end in itself. p10 newliberalmanifesto.org.uk

“The LibDems are needed now more than ever. Our mix of Liberalism and Social Democracy, of believing in the power of the individual and caring for the least, the last and the lost in society, is unique in British politics.” Matthew Hulbert

“The love of liberty is the love of others. The love of power is the love of ourselves.” William Hazlitt

“It’s all about power – how to make individuals more powerful in their own lives, and how to hold the already powerful to account... Liberalism [is] an anti-establishment, reformist, ... creed, aimed at improving people’s lives by challenging the status quo and appealing to people’s dreams” Ed Davey

When we speak of freedom, we do not mean merely freedom to do as we like, irrespective of what it is we like. We mean the greatest power on the part of the citizens as a body to make the most and best of themselves. T. H. Green

“Liberty is the end product of politics and not its starting point.” Bernard Greaves and Gordon Lishman

Don't forget to finish up your sprouts, as we wish you all a merry Christmas, and remind you of what Gladstone said: “Nonconformity supplies the backbone of English Liberalism.”

“Society is indeed a contract... it becomes a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are about to be born.” Edmund Burke

"Liberals will always have in mind more consciously as their aim, not material progress but spiritual liberty; they will emphasise the importance of the individual, and the need to let each person develop on their own line, so long as they do not harm others." William Beveridge

“Injustice, poverty, slavery, ignorance – these may be cured by reform or revolution. But people do not live only by fighting evils.They live by positive goals, individual and collective, a vast variety of them, seldom predictable, at times incompatible.” Isaiah Berlin

A test the UK isn't doing very well at right now: “The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is free is the amount of security enjoyed by its minorities.” Acton

“The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is free is the amount of security enjoyed by its minorities.” Acton

"My idea of being a liberal means never being afraid to be in a minority in order to stand up for what you believe." Paddy Ashdown

“Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt” God

“The trunk of the tree of liberalism is rooted in the soil of ethics.” Herbert Samuel 1902

"Politicians at their peril dictate identity and culture. People can quite comfortably consider themselves both Scots and British and European, a combination of all. Indeed for the citizen it is empowering to have ownership of their identity." David Steel

“Man, as philosophy and theology know him, exists – or is realized – in politics only in the equal rights that those who are most different guarantee for each other.” Hannah Arendt