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Government being simply an agent employed in common by a number of individuals to secure to them certain advantages, the very nature of the connection implies that it is for each to say whether he will employ such an agent or not.

— Herbert Spencer Social Statics (1851)

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More quotes by Herbert Spencer

The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly, is to fill the world with fools.

Essays: Scientific, Political, and Speculative (1891)

Every man is free to do that which he wills, provided he infringes not the equal freedom of any other man.

The Principles of Ethics (1897)

All evil results from the non-adaptation of constitution to conditions. This is true of everything that lives.

Social Statics (1851)

The truth is, that those who have never entered upon scientific pursuits know not a tithe of the poetry by which they are surrounded.

Every man may claim the fullest liberty to exercise his faculties compatible with the possession of like liberties by every other man.

Social Statics (1851)

All Herbert Spencer quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Herbert Spencer (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.