Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse

Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse
To move towards harmony is the persistent impulse of the rational being, even if the goal lies always beyond the reach of accomplished effort.

Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse (8 September 1864 – 21 June 1929) was a British liberal politician and sociologist, who has been considered one of the leading and earliest proponents of social liberalism. His works, alongside that of writers such as T.H. Green and John A. Hobson, occupy a seminal position within the canon of New Liberalism.

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• Excess of liberty contradicts itself. In short, there is no such thing; there is only liberty for one and restraint for another. If liberty then be regarded as a social ideal, the problem of establishing liberty must be a problem of organizing restraints; and thus the conception of a liberty which is to set an entire people free from its government appears to be a self-contradictory ideal.
  • Social Evolution and Political Theory (1911), p. 190.

Liberalism (1911)

• The modern state is the distinctive product of a unique civilization. But it is a product which is still in the making, and a part of the process is a struggle between old and new principles of social order.
  • Chapter I, Before Liberalism, p. 9.

• At all times men have lived in societies, and ties of kinship and of simple neighbourhood underlie every form of social organization.
  • Chapter I, Before Liberalism, p. 9.

• Both logically and historically the first point of attack is arbitrary government, and the first liberty to be secured is the right to be dealt with in accordance with law. A man who has no legal rights against another, but stands entirely at his disposal, to be treated according to his caprice, is a slave to that other.
  • Chapter II, The Elements of Liberalism, p. 16.

• The first condition of universal freedom, that is to say, is a measure of universal restraint. Without such restraint some men may be free but others will be unfree.
  • Chapter II, The Elements of Liberalism, p. 17.

• If there is one law for the Government and another for it's subjects, one for noble and another for commoner, one for rich and another for poor, the law does not guarantee liberty for all.
  • Chapter II, The Elements of Liberalism, p. 17.

• Great changes are not caused by ideas alone; but they are not effected without ideas.
  • Chapter III, The Movement Of Theory, p. 30.

• To be effective men must act together, and to act together they must have a common understanding and a common object.
  • Chapter III, The Movement Of Theory, p. 30.

• The more the individual receives free scope for the play of his faculties, the more rapidly will society as a whole advance.
  • Chapter III, The Movement Of Theory, p. 34.

If the child was helpless, was the grown up person, man or woman, in a much better position?

• Government must keep the ring, and leave it for individuals to play the game.
  • Chapter III, The Movement Of Theory, p. 34 .

• If the child was helpless, was the grown up person, man or woman, in a much better position?
  • Chapter IV, "Laissez - Faire", p. 46.

• The more a class is brought low, the greater its difficulty in rising again without assistance. For purposes of legislation the State has been exceedingly slow to accept this view.
  • Chapter IV, "Laissez - Faire", p. 47.

• True consent is free consent, and full freedom of consent implies equality on the part of both parties to bargain.
  • Chapter IV, "Laissez - Faire", p. 50.

• He is a citizen of the world in that he represents his nation, which is a member of the community of the world.
  • Chapter V, Gladstone And Mill, p. 56.

• There is no line drawn beyond which human obligations cease. There is no gulf across which the voice of human suffering cannot be heard, beyond which massacre and torture cease to be execrable. Simply as a patriot, again, a man should recognize that a nation may become great not merely by painting the map red, or extending her commerce beyond all precedent, but also as the champion of justice, the succourer of the oppressed, the established home of freedom.
  • Chapter V, Gladstone And Mill

• Compulsion may be necessary for the purposes of external order, but it adds nothing to the inward life that is the true being of a man.
  • Chapter V, Gladstone And Mill, p. 60.

• The Liberal does not meet opinions which he conceives to be false with toleration, as though they did not matter. He meets them with justice, and exacts for them a fair hearing as though they mattered just as much as his own.
  • Chapter VI, The Heart Of Liberalism, p. 63.

• The foundation of liberty is the idea of growth.
  • Chapter VI, The Heart Of Liberalism, p. 66.

• To move towards harmony is the persistent impulse of the rational being, even if the goal lies always beyond the reach of accomplished effort.
  • Chapter VI, The Heart Of Liberalism, p. 69.

• Does scope for individual development, for example, consort with idea of equality?
  • Chapter VII, The State And The Individual, p. 74 .

• The fancied clearness of Utopian vision is illusory, because its objects are artificial ideas and not living facts.
  • Chapter VIII, Economic Liberalism, p. 89.

• Other great sources of wealth are found in financial and speculative operations, often of distinctly anti-social tendency and possible only through the defective organization of our economy.
  • Chapter VIII, Economic Liberalism, p. 97.

Government must keep the ring, and leave it for individuals to play the game.

• In modern industry there is very little that the individual can do by his unaided efforts.
  • Chapter VIII, Economic Liberalism, p. 99.

• What we possess has its intrinsic value, but how we came to possess it is also an important question.
  • Chapter IX, The Future Of Liberalism, p. 117.

• Some men are much better and wiser than others, but experience seems to show that hardly any man is so much better than or wiser than others that he can permanently stand the test of irresponsible power over them.
  • Chapter IX, The Future Of Liberalism, p. 118.

• We need less of the fanatics of sectarianism and more of the unifying mind.
  • Chapter IX, The Future Of Liberalism, p. 126-127.

The Metaphysical Theory of the State (1914)

• The best and the worst things that men do they do in the name of a religion. Some have supposed that only supernatural religion could mislead. The history of our own time shows that if men no longer believe in God they will make themselves gods of Power, of Evolution, of the Race, the Nation, or the State. In the name of such gods will they drench a continent with blood, and the youth will offer themselves up as willing martyrs.
  • Conclusion, p. 134

• Theories of politics or of conduct that live long and retain influence have something more than theory behind them. They appeal to powerful instincts and interests, and the Hegelian philosophy is no exception. It appeals to the instincts and interests of counsellors and kings, of privileged classes, of Property and Order. ... It appeals to the slavishness which accepts a master if he will give the slave a share of tyranny over others more deeply enslaved. It satisfies national egotism and class ascendancy.
  • Conclusion, pp. 134-135