Skip to content

When government disappears, it's not as if paradise will take its place. When governments are gone, other interests will take their place.

— Lawrence Lessig

Another quote →

Topics

Government

More quotes by Lawrence Lessig

We are on the cusp of this time where I can say, "I speak as a citizen of the world" without others saying, "God, what a nut."

The problem is their insane rules are now being applied to the whole world. This insanity of control is expanding as everything you do touches copyrights.

I believe it would be right for common sense to revolt against the extreme claims made today on behalf of "intellectual property."

Free Culture (2004)

We live in a world with "free" content, and this freedom is not an imperfection.

May the Source Be With You (2001)

Show me why your regulation of culture is needed. Show me how it does good. And until you can show me both, keep your lawyers away.

Free Culture (2004)

All Lawrence Lessig quotes →

You may also like

Ill can he rule the great, that cannot reach the small.

Edmund Spenser The Faerie Queene (1589)

The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.

James Madison

Bureaucracy and social harmony are inversely proportional to each other.

Leon Trotsky The Revolution Betrayed (1936)

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.

John Adams

Attribution

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