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Sovereign Maxims
Variant: Natural justice is a pledge of reciprocal benefit, to prevent one man from harming or being harmed by another.
Interview with Richard Heffner on The Open Mind (7 December 1975)
Two Treatises of Government (1689)
Source: Second Treatise of Government, Ch. II, sec. 6
Context: The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges every one: and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.
“He harms himself who does harm to another, and the evil plan is most harmful to the planner.”
οἷ γ᾽ αὐτῷ κακὰ τεύχει ἀνὴρ ἄλλῳ κακὰ τεύχων
ἡ δὲ κακὴ βουλὴ τῷ βουλεύσαντι κακίστη.
The man who does evil to another does evil to himself, and the evil counsel is most evil for him who counsels it.
He for himself weaves woe who weaves for others woe,
and evil counsel recoils on the counsellor. https://archive.org/stream/b24865898#page/432/mode/2up
Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), lines 265-266
“Harm is in us.
Harm in us, but power to arm.
Harm is in us.
Leave it open!”
Song lyrics, The Dreaming (1982)
“One man's religion neither harms nor helps another man.”
Nec alii obest aut prodest alterius religio.
Ad Scapulam, 2.2
1960s-1980s, "The Problem of Social Cost" (1960)
The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Goddess (1979)
in a tribute to Andrei Sakharov, Address at the National Academy of Science, November 13, 1988
2022, June 2022, Remarks by Vice President Harris Announcing the Launch of the White House Task Force to Address Online Harassment and Abuse
