“The word ‘Liberal’ has now become so variously interpreted that few people know what it means. Those who use it most precisely today are the Fascists and the Communists. They know what Liberalism is, and they are against it. For these people are collectivists.”

—  Dorothy Thompson

Dorothy Thompson’s Political Guide: A Study of American Liberalism and its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States (1938)
Source: A Study of American Liberalism and its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States (1938)
p. 58

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 14, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The word ‘Liberal’ has now become so variously interpreted that few people know what it means. Those who use it most pr…" by Dorothy Thompson?
Dorothy Thompson photo
Dorothy Thompson 77
American journalist and radio broadcaster 1893–1961

Related quotes

Dorothy Thompson photo

“What confuses the mind of the average American is that the American collectivist calls himself a Liberal, and has pre-empted a word which has a totally different philosophy behind it. The Fascists and Communists know that Liberalism is the enemy. But the American collectivist, who calls himself a Liberal, believes that he can have the better of two worlds.”

Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) American journalist and radio broadcaster

Dorothy Thompson’s Political Guide: A Study of American Liberalism and its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States (1938)
Source: A Study of American Liberalism and its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States (1938)
p. 62

Fidel Castro photo

“They corrupt the morals of young girls and destroy posters of Che! What do they think? That this is a bourgeois liberal regime? NO! There is nothing liberal in us! We are collectivists! We are communists! There will be no Prague Spring here!”

Fidel Castro (1926–2016) former First Secretary of the Communist Party and President of Cuba

As quoted in Exposing the Real Che Guevara: And the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him http://archive.li/OvPcZ (August 2008), by Humberto Fontova

Barack Obama photo

“The word Tahrir means liberation.  It is a word that speaks to that something in our souls that cries out for freedom.  And forevermore it will remind us of the Egyptian people — of what they did, of the things that they stood for, and how they changed their country, and in doing so changed the world.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2011, Remarks on Egyptian political transition (February 2011)
Context: Today belongs to the people of Egypt, and the American people are moved by these scenes in Cairo and across Egypt because of who we are as a people and the kind of world that we want our children to grow up in.
The word Tahrir means liberation.  It is a word that speaks to that something in our souls that cries out for freedom.  And forevermore it will remind us of the Egyptian people — of what they did, of the things that they stood for, and how they changed their country, and in doing so changed the world.

Oscar Wilde photo

“The only people I would care to be with now are artists and people who have suffered: those who know what beauty is, and those who know what sorrow is: nobody else interests me.”

Oscar Wilde book De Profundis

Source: De Profundis

Burton K. Wheeler photo

“What bothers me about today's "liberals" is this: through the ages, those called liberal fought to take the power away from the kings and the emperors and to give it to the parliaments; now it is the "liberals" who are anxious to give more and more power to the executive, at the expense of the legislative branch.”

Burton K. Wheeler (1882–1975) American politician and lawyer

Yankee from the West (1962), chapter 19, p. 428.

Lupe Fiasco photo

“Fear and Sex are the two most effective weapons that are used against the people. Tempering desire motivates liberation.”

Lupe Fiasco (1982) rapper

Rules 2 Rule

“THE TERM (Sustainability) HAS BECOME so widely used that it is in danger of meaning nothing. It has been applied to all manner of activities in an effort to give those activities the gloss of moral imperative, the cachet of environmental enlightenment. “Sustainable” has been used variously to mean “politically feasible,” “economically feasible,” “not part of a pyramid or bubble,” “socially enlightened,” “consistent with neoconservative small-government dogma,” “consistent with liberal principles of justice and fairness,” “morally desirable,” and, at its most diffuse, “sensibly far-sighted.””

Eric Zencey (1953–2019) American writer

Eric Zencey, " Theses on Sustainability https://orionmagazine.org/article/theses-on-sustainability/" in Orion, May/June 2010.

Charles Krauthammer photo

“There's something in the Western psyche, especially the Western liberal, pluralistic psyche, that finds it impossible to believe that radical ideologues mean what they say. We didn't believe communists or fascists, and in the early days we found it impossible to believe the Khomeinists. Yet these are people who do believe what they say. Attempts to moderate their behavior invariably fail; these are exercises in our heads. We need a policy of strong opposition to the fundamentalists and of strong support for those Muslims who stand up to them.”

Charles Krauthammer (1950–2018) American journalist

Interview with Charles Krauthammer: America's "Great Success Story", in Middle East Quarterly (December 1994)
1990s, 1994

Sue Monk Kidd photo

“So few people know what they're capable of.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Mermaid Chair

Source: The Mermaid Chair

Rush Limbaugh photo

“The way liberals are interpreting the First Amendment today is that it prevents anyone who is religious from being in government. They say that violates the prohibition against church and state.”

Rush Limbaugh (1951) U.S. radio talk show host, Commentator, author, and television personality

[The Way Things Ought to Be, Pocket Books, October 1992, 277, 978-0671751456, 92028659, 26397008, 1724938M]

Related topics