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About this quote

What does it mean?
Liberalism balances faith in the public with caution while conservatism balances distrust with anxiety.
In plain terms
Liberals trust people cautiously while conservatives fear them.
What can you take from it?
Political ideologies differ on how they balance trust and caution.

Where it applies

  • elections
  • policy debates
  • governance

Putting it to work

  • compare party platforms
  • analyze voting trends
  • study political theory

Questions to consider

  • Does trust or fear drive better policy?
  • Can a system mix these traits?

Another view

This binary view may oversimplify complex political motivations.

More from William Ewart Gladstone

  1. The Labour movement is but the tail of the great Liberal lion.

    Permalink to quote #34
  2. He has one gift most dangerous to a spectator, a vast command of a kind of language, grave and majestic, but of vague and uncertain import.

    Permalink to quote #36
  3. Justice delayed is justice denied.

    Permalink to quote #33

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