In a free society, government has the responsibility of protecting us from others, but not from ourselves.
Interpretation
Government protects individuals from external threats but not from their own choices.
This quote emphasizes the role of government in a free society as one primarily focused on safeguarding individuals from harm caused by others. It suggests that while the state should intervene to ensure public safety and order, it should not interfere in personal choices or self-directed actions, highlighting the importance of personal responsibility and freedom.
In practice
During a debate on individual freedoms, one might quote this to emphasize the limits of government authority.
However, if we wish to be compassionate with our fellow man, we must learn to engage in dispassionate analysis. In other words, thinking with our hearts, rather than our brains, is a surefire method to hurt those whom we wish to help.
What we call the market is really a democratic process involving millions, and in some markets billions, of people making personal decisions that express their preferences. When you hear someone say that he doesn't trust the market, and wants to replace it with government edicts, he's really calling for a switch from a democratic process to a totalitarian one.
The true test of one's commitment to liberty and private property rights doesn't come when we permit people to be free to do those voluntary things with which we agree. The true test comes when we permit people to be free to do those voluntary things with which we disagree.
Powerful government tends to draw into it people with bloated egos, people who think they know more than everyone else and have little hesitance in coercing their fellow man. Or as Nobel Laureate Friedrich Hayek said, "in government, the scum rises to the top".
If one person has a right to something he did not earn, of necessity it requires that another person not have a right to something that he did earn.
The essence of government is force, and most often that force is used to accomplish evil ends.
Everybody born comes from the Creator trailing wisps of glory.
I have never felt that the one thing that I am 'known for' is what I am.
The feminists who are aware of the effects of patriarchy realize that we are all in the same boat from the dangers of patriarchy, and that the oppression of women is universal.
Here is a man whose life and actions the world has already condemned - yet whose enormous fortune...has already brought him acquittal!
No animal ever invented anything as bad as drunkenness - or so good as drink.
Truly man is the king of beasts, for his brutality exceeds them. We live by the death of others. We are burial places.
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