“The liberty of the individual to do as he pleases, even in innocent matters, is not absolute. It must frequently yield to the common good.”

Adkins v. Children's Hospital, 261 U.S. 560 (1923)

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George Sutherland 10
Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, United States … 1862–1942

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Context: No one ever seriously affirmed the literal freedom of will. Absolute liberty is absence of restraint; responsibility is restraint; therefore the ideally free individual is responsible only to himself. This principle is the philosophical foundation of anarchism, and, for anything that science has yet proved, may be the philosophical foundation of the Universe; but it is fatal to all society and is especially hostile to the State. Perhaps the Church of the thirteenth century might have found a way to use even this principle for a good purpose; certainly the influence of Saint Bernard was sufficiently unsocial and that of Saint Francis was sufficiently unselfish to conciliate even anarchists of the militant class.

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