Alexis de Tocqueville on democracy

Our contemporaries are constantly excited by two conflicting passions; they want to be led, and they wish to remain free: as they cannot destroy either the one or the other of these contrary propensities, they strive to satisfy them both at once. They devise a sole, tutelary, and all powerful form of government, but elected by the people. They combine the principle of centralization and that of popular sovereignty; this gives them a respite: they console themselves for being in tutelage by the reflection that they have chosen their own guardians. Every man allows himself to be put in leading-strings, because he sees that it is not a person or a class of persons but the people at large, who hold the end of his chain. 

~ Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1835)

George C. Marshall on freedom and force

We are determined that before the sun sets on this terrible struggle, Our Flag will be recognized throughout the World as a symbol of Freedom on the one hand and of overwhelming force on the other.

~ General George C. Marshall

George Marshall
1965-1968

Angela Merkel on the limits of free speech

Expressing an opinion does not come at zero cost.  But freedom of expression has its limits.  Those limits begin where hatred is spread.  They begin where the dignity of other people is violated.  This house will and must oppose free speech.  Otherwise our society will no longer be the free society that it was.

~ Angela Merkel

National Review defends central planning... in the name of defending capitalism

The tensions that arise among the demands of these different institutions [family, religion, schools, civic associations, political bodies, and more] and the commitments that constitute our social order can often be addressed by individuals setting priorities in their own lives. But there are also instances when dealing with such tensions requires politics. This means that sometimes our economic policy has to be determined by more than purely economic considerations — by our sense of the kind of society we want to be and the kinds of goals we want to pursue together. Overall economic growth is one such vital goal, as surely everyone agrees. But there are other goals that matter, including equity, cultural vitality, social order, family formation, piety and religious liberty, individual and national self-sufficiency, personal liberty and communal self-determination, and moral traditionalism and moral pluralism, among many others. Ordering these frequently competing or contradictory ends in hard cases is part of what our politics is for, and the argument for capitalism cannot be an argument for putting economics above all else.

To suggest that our commitments to market ideals must be moderated in this way, and also that they should be allowed to moderate some of our other commitments, is not to attack capitalism, but to defend it... [C]apitalism needs conservative defenders, and deserves to have them.

~ Yuval Levin, "The Free-Market Tradition," National Review, May 2, 2019

George Orwell on doublethink

Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.

~ George Orwell, 1984