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Online Library of Liberty The OLL is a curated collection of scholarly works that engage with vital questions of liberty.

Spanning the centuries from Hammurabi to Hume, and collecting material on topics from art and economics to law and political theory, the OLL provides you with a rich variety of texts to explore and consider.

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Explore the OLL Collection: Quotations About Liberty and Power Thomas Aquinas on why the law should not punish imperfect men for practising vices which do not harm others (1274)

The Italian Dominican theologian Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1275) argues the because the majority of people are weak and not perfect, human laws should not punish individuals for engaging in vice unless it causes harm to others:

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Liberty Matters: A Forum for the Discussion of Ideas About Liberty Judge Glock, "Albert Venn Dicey and the Immunity of the Administrative State" (December 2020)

Welcome to our December 2020 edition of Liberty Matters.  In this month’s forum Judge Glock has written our lead essay on the A.V. Dicey.  Dicey was an English legal scholar at Oxford in the late 19th and early 20th centuries who is best known for having popularized the phrase “the rule of law”.  Dicey’s most famous work was Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution and was widel...

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Explore the OLL Collection: Images of Liberty and Power Adam Smith and J.B. Say on the Division of Labour

Related Links: Adam Smith Jean-Baptiste Say School of Thought: The Scotttish Enlightenment School of Thought: The French Enlightenment Subject Area: Economics The Division of Labour: Adam Smith and the Pin-Maker; J.B. Say and the Playing Card Manufacturer One of the most famous stories in economics is Adam Smith's story of the pin-maker. It has been repe...

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Best of the OLL BOLL 18: Friedrich Hayek, “Kinds of Order in Society” (1964)

This is part of “The Best of the Online Library of Liberty” which is a collection of some of the most important material in the OLL. This essay is by the Austrian economist and social theorist Friedrich Hayek in which he gives one of the most concise explanations of the difference between “constructed” orders and “spontaneous” orders. He focuses on the example of the division of labor as one of...

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