--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Liberalism regards all absolutes with…" description: "\"Liberalism regards all absolutes with profound skepticism, including both moral imperatives and final solutions... Insistence upon any particular solut..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/433/arthur-m-schlesinger-jr-14015_absolutes_liberalism-regards-all-absolutes-with-pr_1916819.png" --- # Liberalism regards all absolutes with profound skepticism… ![“Liberalism regards all absolutes with profound skepticism, including both moral imperatives and final solutions... Insistence upon any particular solution is the mark of an ideologue.” quote by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/433/arthur-m-schlesinger-jr-14015_absolutes_liberalism-regards-all-absolutes-with-pr_1916819.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/433/arthur-m-schlesinger-jr-14015_absolutes_liberalism-regards-all-absolutes-with-pr_1916819.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/433/arthur-m-schlesinger-jr-14015_absolutes_liberalism-regards-all-absolutes-with-pr_1916819.png) > “Liberalism regards all absolutes with profound skepticism, including both moral imperatives and final solutions... Insistence upon any particular solution is the mark of an ideologue.” [Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/arthur-m-schlesinger-jr/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Liberalism doubts absolute truths, rejecting rigid moral or final solutions as ideological. **In simple terms:** Liberalism is skeptical of absolutes. Key Takeaway Question absolutes. Themes politics philosophy skepticism Mood critical analytical Type political philosophical When to use this quote - policy debate - ethical dilemmas - academic discourse Key Concepts liberalism ideology relativism Questions to Reflect On - What are the risks of total skepticism? - How to balance principle with flexibility? A Different Perspective Absolute claims can still guide action. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Absolutes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/absolutes/) [Europe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/europe/) [Faith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/faith/) [Finals](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/finals/) [Freedom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/freedom/) [Ideologues](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ideologues/) [Imperatives](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/imperatives/) [Including](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/including/) [Insistence](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/insistence/) [Knowledge](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/knowledge/) [Liberalism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/liberalism/) [Liberalism Regards](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/liberalism-regards-2919247/) [Liberty](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/liberty/) [Mark](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mark/) [Moral](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/moral/) [Particular](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/particular/) [Profound](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/profound/) [Profound Skepticism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/profound-skepticism-858609/) [Regard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/regard/) [Regards Absolutes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/regards-absolutes-2919248/) [Resistance](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/resistance/) [Responsibility](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/responsibility/) [Skepticism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/skepticism/) [Socialism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/socialism/) [Solutions](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/solutions/) ## Related quotes > [Liberalism regards life as an adventure in which we must take risks in new situation, in which there is no guarantee that the new…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/morris-raphael-cohen/liberalism-regards-life-as-an-adventure-in-which-we-must-take-risks/) [Morris Raphael Cohen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/morris-raphael-cohen/) > [Major problem for Black women, and all people of color, when we are challenged to oppose anti-Semitism, is our profound skepticism that white people…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/barbara-smith/major-problem-for-black-women-and-all-people-of-color-when-we-are/) [Barbara Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/barbara-smith/) > [The most striking development of the great depression of 1929 is a profound skepticism of the future of contemporary society among large sections of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-l-r-james/the-most-striking-development-of-the-great-depression-of-1929-is-a/) [C. 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They're not there to be partisans, they're not there to be ideologues.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lawrence-o-donnell/national-security-advisors-are-not-there-to-be-advocates-generally/) [Lawrence O'Donnell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lawrence-o-donnell/) > [We should not allow a tiny minority of shoddy scientists and science and extreme ideologues to compete with scientific facts,](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-f-kerry/we-should-not-allow-a-tiny-minority-of-shoddy-scientists-and-science/) [John F. Kerry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-f-kerry/) > [Almost all scholarly research carries practical and political implications. Better that we should spell these out ourselves than leave that task to people with…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stephanie-coontz/almost-all-scholarly-research-carries-practical-and-political/) [Stephanie Coontz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stephanie-coontz/) > [Relativity was a highly technical new theory that gave new meanings to familiar concepts and even to the nature of the theory itself. The…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-c-cassidy/relativity-was-a-highly-technical-new-theory-that-gave-new-meanings/) [David C. Cassidy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-c-cassidy/) ## More by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr > [I don't think I have made as much of my life as I should have. I should have written more books.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/arthur-m-schlesinger-jr/i-don-t-think-i-have-made-as-much-of-my-life-as-i-should-have-i/) [Arthur M. 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Schlesinger, Jr quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/arthur-m-schlesinger-jr/) ## More Absolutes quotes > [At the centre of the human heart is the longing for an absolute good, a longing which is always there and is never appeased…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/simone-weil/at-the-centre-of-the-human-heart-is-the-longing-for-an-absolute-good/) [Simone Weil](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/simone-weil/) > [There is no perfect justice, just as there is no absolute in ethics. 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He said he gave his son for the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/billy-graham/those-are-decisions-only-the-lord-will-make-i-believe-the-love-of-god/) [Billy Graham](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/billy-graham/) > [“The Gods know what it is to be eternal, and they love to toy with mortals who use absolutes.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/josephine-angelini/the-gods-know-what-it-is-to-be-eternal-and-they-love-to-toy-with/) [Josephine Angelini](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/josephine-angelini/) > [Anarchy is the stepping stone to absolute power.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/napoleon-bonaparte/anarchy-is-the-stepping-stone-to-absolute-power/) [Napoleon Bonaparte](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/napoleon-bonaparte/) > [I was asked the other day if I would be interested in the Nobel Prize, but I think that for me it would be…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gabriel-garc-a-m-rquez/i-was-asked-the-other-day-if-i-would-be-interested-in-the-nobel-prize/) [Gabriel Garcia Marquez](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gabriel-garc-a-m-rquez/) > [The only "definitive truth" for Buddhism is the absolute negation of any one truth as the Definitive Truth.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dalai-lama/the-only-definitive-truth-for-buddhism-is-the-absolute-negation-of/) [Dalai Lama](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dalai-lama/) > [The nature of the Absolute is neither perceptible nor imperceptible; and with phenomena it is just the same. 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