“We know that men cannot be compelled to be good. They can only be prevented from being bad—a negative condition. We know from bitter experience that men cannot be forced into doing the wise thing, for such a forcement is foolishness.”

— Robert LeFevre

Source: Nature of Man and His Government (1959), p. 81

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "We know that men cannot be compelled to be good. They can only be prevented from being bad—a negative condition. We kno…" by Robert LeFevre?

Robert LeFevre 47

American libertarian businessman 1911–1986

Related quotes

“We can be knowledgeable with other men's knowledge, but we cannot be wise with other men's wisdom.”

Michel De Montaigne (1533–1592) (1533-1592) French-Occitan author, humanistic philosopher, statesman

Book I, Ch. 25
Attributed

“The liberal conceives of men as imperfect beings. He regards the problem of social organization to be as much a negative problem of preventing 'bad' people from doing harm as of enabling 'good' people to do good; and, of course, 'bad' and 'good' people may be the same people, depending on who is judging them.”

Milton Friedman book Capitalism and Freedom

Source: Capitalism and Freedom (1962), Ch. 1 The Relation Between Economic Freedom and Political Freedom, p. 12

“Only the foolish learn from experience - the wise learn from the experience of others.”

Rolf Hochhuth (1931) german writer

Nur der Dumme lernt aus Erfahrung, der Kluge aus der Erfahrung der anderen!
Alan Turing

“There is one thing, and only one, in the whole universe which we know more about than we could learn from external observation. That one thing is Man. We do not merely observe men, we are men. In this case we have, so to speak, inside information; we are in the know.”

Clive Staples Lewis book Mere Christianity

Book I, Chapter 4, "What Lies behind the Law"
Mere Christianity (1952)

“I cannot experience your experience. You cannot experience my experience. We are both invisible men.”

Ronald David Laing book The Politics of Experience

Source: The Politics of Experience (1967), Ch. 1 : Experience as evidence
Context: I cannot experience your experience. You cannot experience my experience. We are both invisible men. All men are invisible to one another. Experience used to be called The Soul. Experience as invisibility of man to man is at the same time more evident than anything. Only experience is evident. Experience is the only evidence. Psychology is the logos of experience. Psychology is the structure of the evidence, and hence psychology is the science of sciences.

“Suppose it is said that there are evil spirits: — if they have their power from the Gods, they cannot be evil; if from elsewhere, the Gods do not make all things. If they do not make all things, then either they wish to or cannot, or they can and do not wish; neither of which is consistent with the idea of god. We may see, therefore, from these arguments, that there is no positive evil in the world.
It is in the activities of men that the evils appear, and that not of all men nor always.”

Sallustius Roman philosopher and writer

XII. The origin of evil things; and that there is no positive evil.
On the Gods and the Cosmos

“Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience. If we could learn from mere experience, the stones of London would be wiser than its wisest men.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

#127-128
1900s, Maxims for Revolutionists (1903)

“I do not believe that in Egypt we can prohibit it [polygamy] by law…. Polygamy cannot be prevented by force, but through education.”

Suzanne Mubarak (1941) former First Lady of Egypt

Polygamy and Female Circumcision Can Only Be Abolished Through Education, Not by Force. A Female Egyptian President - Not in the Near Future http://www.memritv.org/Transcript.asp?P1=1399 March 2007

“And we cannot change this order of things; but what we can do is to acquire stout hearts, worthy of good men, thereby courageously enduring chance and placing ourselves in harmony with Nature.”

Seneca the Younger book Epistulae morales ad Lucilium

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter CVII: On Obedience to the Universal Will

“We don't have enough knowledge until we learn to know. But the limitations of humanity prevent us from knowing what is unknown and what is beyond reasoning. That is why we cannot rely entirely on ourselves.”

Titon Rahmawan

“We know that men cannot be compelled to be good. They can only be prevented from being bad—a negative condition. We know from bitter experience that men cannot be forced into doing the wise thing, for such a forcement is foolishness.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Robert LeFevre 47

Related quotes

Related topics