Harold Edmund Stearns, Liberalism in America: Its Origin, Its Temporary Collapse, Its Future

"The root of liberalism, in a word, is hatred of compulsion, for liberalism has the respect for the individual and his conscience and reason which the employment of coercion necessarily destroys. The liberal has faith in the individual – faith that he can be persuaded by rational means to beliefs compatible with social good."

Harold Edmund Stearns, Liberalism in America: Its Origin, Its Temporary Collapse, Its Future