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.
Sunday is the core of our civilization, dedicated to thought and reverence.
If it weren't for the message of mercy and pity in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, I wouldn't want to be a human being. I would just as soon be a rattlesnake.
All God's creatures are His family; and he is the most beloved of God who tries to do most good to God's creatures.
We stumble on, thinks Jaslyn, bring a little noise into the silence, find in others the ongoing of ourselves. It is almost enough.
It is so characteristic, that just when the mechanics of reproduction are so vastly improved, there are fewer and fewer people who know how the music should be played.
You have the effrontery to be squeamish, it thought at him. But we were dragons. We were supposed to be cruel, cunning, heartless and terrible. But this much I can tell you, you ape β the great face pressed even closer, so that Wonse was staring into the pitiless depths of his eyes β we never burned and tortured and ripped one another apart and called it morality.
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