Freedom is a relative state. Absolute freedom is anarchy. Sectional freedom becomes licence or patronage. When people elect to live together in a free society to benefit by mutual companionship and talents, they elect also to make certain compromises on freedom. Constant vigilance is necessary to prevent the encroachment upon freedom by the State, whether the motive is misguided benevolence or totalitarian in origin.
Individual freedom is vital to the development of human dignity.
As freedom recedes with the encroachment of the collective State, so human dignity becomes inspired. Liberalism sees merit in human striving. Dissatisfaction with the old is the spur to the creation of the new. It rejects the concept of the paternal State. The liberal society is a free association of individuals, existing to effect by common effort those conditions in which each may develop his own personality, by choosing hos own way of living and of life, subject to the rights of others.