We are doomed to choose and every choice may entail irreparable loss.

The case against the notion of historical objectivity is like the case against international law, or international morality; that it does not exist.

If, as I believe, the ends of men are many, and not all of them are in principle compatible with each other, then the possibility of conflict - and of tragedy - can never wholly be eliminated from human life, either personal or social. The necessity of choosing between absolute claims is then an inescapable characteristic of the human condition. This gives its value to freedom as Acton conceived of it - as an end in itself, and not as a temporary need, arising out of our confused notions and irrational and disordered lives, a predicament which a panacea could one day put right.

Conformities are called for much more eagerly today than yesterday... skeptics, liberals, individuals with a taste for private life and their own inner standards of behavior, are objects of fear and derision and targets of persecution for either side... in the great ideological wars of our time.

Life may be seen through many windows, none of them necessarily clear or opaque, less or more distorting than any of the others.

Freedom for the wolves has often meant death to the sheep.

Liberty is liberty, not equality or fairness or justice or human happiness or a quiet conscience.