A liberal is a power worshipper without the power.
—George Orwell (1903–50) English Novelist, Journalist
A liberal is a man or a woman or a child who looks forward to a better day, a more tranquil night, and a bright, infinite future.
—Leonard Bernstein (1918–90) American Composer, Conductor
The hard-core intentionalist expresses only the most remote concern for consequences – usually, some vague, distant utopia. But this is, in most cases, a rationalization. His real satisfaction comes from a sense of doing the right thing – even when right has, in his mind, no clear connection with reality.
—Robert Bidinotto (b.1949) American Novelist, Journalist
If you’re a liberal, anything you say is protected. If you’re a conservative, anything you say is hateful.
—Laura Schlessinger (b.1947) American Radio Talk-Show Host, Author
As Mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protections of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality.
—George Washington (1732–99) American Head of State, Military Leader
Liberals seem to assume that, if you don’t believe in their particular political solutions, then you don’t really care about the people that they claim to want to help
—Thomas Sowell (b.1930) American Conservative Economist, Political Commentator
Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has not heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
Liberals feel unworthy of their possessions. Conservatives feel they deserve everything they’ve stolen.
—Mort Sahl (1927–2021) American Comedian, Political Satirist
Before we blame we should first see whether we cannot excuse.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
The Liberals have many tails, and chase them all
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
The label of liberalism is hardly a sentence to public ignominy: otherwise Bruce Springsteen would still be rehabilitating used Cadillacs in Asbury Park and Jane Fonda, for all we know, would be just another overweight housewife.
—Barbara Ehrenreich (1941–2022) American Social Critic, Essayist
There are two kinds of liberalism. A liberalism which is always, subterraneously authoritative and paternalistic, on the side of one’s good conscience. And then there is a liberalism which is more ethical than political; one would have to find another name for this. Something like a profound suspension of judgment.
—Roland Barthes (1915–80) French Writer, Critic, Teacher
I sit on a man’s back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means—except by getting off his back.
—Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian Novelist
The principle feature of American liberalism is sanctimoniousness. By loudly denouncing all bad things—war and hunger and date rape—liberals testify to their own terrific goodness. More important, they promote themselves to membership in a self-selecting elite of those who care deeply about such things. It’s a kind of natural aristocracy, and the wonderful thing about this aristocracy is that you don’t have to be brave, smart, strong or even lucky to join it, you just have to be liberal.
—P. J. O’Rourke (1947–2022) American Journalist, Political Satirist
The liberals can understand everything but people who don’t understand them.
—Lenny Bruce (1925–66) American Comedian, Writer, Social Critic, Satirist
Liberalism, austere in political trifles, has learned ever more artfully to unite a constant protest against the government with a constant submission to it.
—Alexander Herzen (1812–70) Russian Revolutionary, Writer
A liberal is a man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963) American Poet
If a conservative is a liberal who’s been mugged, a liberal is a conservative who’s been arrested
—Thomas Wolfe (1900–38) American Novelist
Left-wingers are incapable of conspiring because they’re all egomaniacs.
—Norman Mailer (1923–2007) American Novelist Essayist
Liberalism—it is well to recall this today—is the supreme form of generosity; it is the right which the majority concedes to minorities and hence it is the noblest cry that has ever resounded in this planet. It announces the determination to share existence with the enemy; more than that, with an enemy which is weak.
—Jose Ortega y. Gasset (1883–1955) Spanish Critic, Journalist, Philosopher
The Liberal State is a mask behind which there is no face; it is a scaffolding behind which there is no building.
—Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) Italian Head of State, Politician
I never dared to be radical when young for fear it would make me conservative when old.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963) American Poet
A liberal is a socialist with a wife and two children.
—Unknown
Conservatism makes no poetry, breathes no prayer, has no invention; it is all memory. Reform has no gratitude, no prudence, no husbandry.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
A man who has both feet planted firmly in the air can be safely called a liberal as opposed to the conservative, who has both feet firmly planted in his mouth
—Jacques Barzun (b.1907) French-born American Historian, Philosophers
The liberal holds that he is true to the republic when he is true to himself. (It may not be as cozy an attitude as it sounds.) He greets with enthusiasm the fact of the journey, as a dog greets a man’s invitation to take a walk. And he acts in the dog’s way too, swinging wide, racing ahead, doubling back, covering many miles of territory that the man never traverses, all in the spirit of inquiry and the zest for truth. He leaves a crazy trail, but he ranges far beyond the genteel old party he walks with and he is usually in a better position to discover a skunk.
—E. B. White (1985–99) American Essayist, Humorist
The most dangerous enemy of truth and freedom amongst us is the compact majority.
—Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) Norwegian Playwright
The essence of the Liberal outlook lies not in what opinions are held, but in how they are held: instead of being held dogmatically, they are held tentatively, and with a consciousness that new evidence may at any moment lead to their abandonment.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
A liberal is man who will give away everything he doesn’t own.
—Frank Lane (1896–1981) American Sportsperson, Businessperson
Liberalism is totalitarianism with a human face.
—Thomas Sowell (b.1930) American Conservative Economist, Political Commentator