Thought for the week

What has made the European family of nations an improving instead of stationary portion of mankind. Not any superior excellence in them, which, when it exists, exists as the effect not as the cause, but their remarkable diversity of charachter and culture. Individuals, classes, nations have been extremely unlike one another, they have struck out a great variety of paths each leading to to something valuable and although at every period those who have travelled on different paths have been intolerant of one another, and each would have thought it an excellent thing if all the rest could have been compelled to travel his road, their attempts to thwart each others development have rarely had any permanent success, and each has in time endured to recieve the good that the others have offered. Europe is in my judgement wholely indebted to this plurality of paths for its progressive and many sided development.

On Liberty J.S. Mill

In a week when our Prime Minister wishes to sign a document that sets in stone, a single path for Europe, it is a good time to reflect on the value and true meaning of diversity.