With the US unemployment rate at 9 percent, it's rational for college students to lose confidence in the liberal arts and to opt for a vocational major. Or is it? There is a compelling economic case for the liberal arts. Against those who call for more professional training, liberal educators should concede nothing. However, they do have a responsibility to move the debate beyond narrow economic terms. Every argument for liberal education should be an illustration of liberal thinking. Focusing on how liberal education is a pathway to success, the author examines the very meaning of "success" and of the "liberal arts" themselves. The liberal arts seek to engender persons who are inspired by past achievements and are confident of their creative potential. These are persons who will be successful, who will fashion value of different kinds--commercial, political, artistic, spiritual--up and down the income ladder. The liberal disciplines are not vocational, and they are not the humanities narrowly defined. They are the arts that remind people of the deeds of free human beings and the arts that make them free.