"Bertrand de Jouvenel indicates that contemporary liberals fail to see that government based on free discussion and free opinion presupposes the human capacity to distinguish truth from falsehood and to define general principles of justice that transcend the human desire for power."
"European chivalry had tied manliness to gentleness and had 'subdued the fierceness of pride and power.' In Christian Europe, authority had been tamed by elegance and 'subdued by manners.' But modern rationalist philosophy, vulgarized by the revolutionaries, had no place for taste, elegance, or even moral self-restraint. Its cold, calculating rationality undermined the 'love, veneration, admiration, or attachment' that connect people to their commonwealth. In Burke’s view, public affections, combined with manners, are required as 'supplements,' 'correctives” and 'aids' to the law. The French Revolution left 'another inheritance, it…hallowed violence.'"
-Taken from Daniel J. Mahoney's excellent book on Jouvenel, Bertrand De Jouvenel: Conserative Liberal & Illusions Of Modernity
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