You can't give the government the power to do good without also giving it the power to do bad - in fact, to do anything it wants.
Interpretation
Granting power to the government for good purposes can also enable it to exercise power for negative ends.
This quote by Harry Browne highlights the inherent duality of government power. While the intention may be to empower the government to enact positive change, such as social welfare or protection, it simultaneously opens the door for potential misuse of that power, leading to negative outcomes that could infringe on individual freedoms and rights. Therefore, one must be cautious about how much authority is entrusted to the government, as it can be leveraged for both benevolent and malevolent purposes.
In practice
This quote is useful in a debate about governmental policy and authority.
Asset forfeiture is a mockery of the Bill of Rights. There is no presumption of innocence, no need to prove you guilty (or even charge you with a crime), no right to a jury trial, no right to confront your accuser, no right to a court-appointed attorney (even if the government has just stolen all your money), and no right to compensation for the property that's been taken.
Government seems to operate on the principle that if even one individual is incapable of using his freedom competently, no one can be allowed to be free.
Conservatives say the government can't end poverty by force, but they believe it can use force to make people moral. Liberals say government can't make people be moral, but they believe it can end poverty. Neither group attempts to explain why government is so clumsy and destructive in one area but a paragon of efficiency and benevolence in the other.
No one ever died from smoking marijuana, but millions of people have died by believing politicians.
When you know that you're capable of dealing with whatever comes, you have the only security the world has to offer.
A great burden was lifted from my shoulders the day I realized that no one owes me anything.
Politics is so personal, vicious and immediate, how are you going to get anything done? Even the local politics where I live have gotten so ugly.
As we speak, Iran has rolled back its nuclear program, shipped out its uranium stockpile, and the world has avoided another war.
Israel was born under the British mandate. We learned from the British what democracy means, and how it behaves in a time of danger, war and terror. We thank Britain for introducing freedom and respect of human rights both in normal and demanding circumstances.
There’s nothing entertaining about watching goons hurl venomous slurs at congressmen like the civil rights hero John Lewis and the openly gay Barney Frank. How curious that a mob fond of likening President Obama to Hitler knows so little about history that it doesn’t recognize its own small-scale mimicry of Kristallnacht.
Everybody that's trying to get anything progressive done in this country knows that the biggest barrier is getting money out of politics.
Seventy years after China emerged from the Second World War, the greatest threat facing the nation's leadership is not imperialism but skepticism.
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