“Since governmental activity may be deemed a service which is useful to society, society should consent to pay for this service.”

—  Henri de Saint-Simon

"Declarations of Principles"

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 18, 2024. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Since governmental activity may be deemed a service which is useful to society, society should consent to pay for this …" by Henri de Saint-Simon?
Henri de Saint-Simon photo
Henri de Saint-Simon9
French early socialist theorist 1760–1825

Related quotes

“Public administration is the use of managerial, political, and legal theories and processes to fulfill legislative, executive, and judicial governmental mandates for the provision of regulatory and service functions for the society as a whole or for some segments of it.”

David H. Rosenbloom (1943) American academic

David H. Rosenbloom Public Administration, 2nd Edition, p. 6

Talal Abu-Ghazaleh photo

“Governments should be role models of leadership and improve the utilization of ICT in all the governmental departments in order to improve the efficiency of governmental services and motivate ICT industries.”

Talal Abu-Ghazaleh (1938) Jordanian businesspeople

May 15, 2000, ESCWA Team of Experts Meeting, Amman, Jordan.

Ilham Aliyev photo

“There is complete transparency, no bureaucracy or bribery, and people are provided with a cultured service. In fact, this is the way it should be. "ASAN xidmət" is a very important institutional center not only in the field of public services, but also for society as a whole.”

Ilham Aliyev (1961) 4th President of Azerbaijan from 2003

During the opening of Qabala regional “ASAN xidmət” center (10 August 2016) http://en.president.az/articles/20790 <br class="br">Anti-corruption policy

Murray N. Rothbard photo

“Briefly, the State is that organization in society which attempts to maintain a monopoly of the use of force and violence in a given territorial area; in particular, it is the only organization in society that obtains its revenue not by voluntary contribution or payment for services rendered but by coercion.”

Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995) American economist of the Austrian School, libertarian political theorist, and historian

Murray Rothbard, The Anatomy of the State, Auburn, Alabama, Mises Institute (2009) p.11, first published in 1974 https://mises.org/library/anatomy-state

Mahatma Gandhi photo

“The police... should never go on strike. Theirs was an essential service and they should render that service, irrespective of their pay. There were several other effective and honourable means of getting grievances redressed.”

Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) pre-eminent leader of Indian nationalism during British-ruled India

In response to representatives of policemen who met him during a police strike in Gaya on March 24, 1947, https://web.archive.org/web/20210807112446/https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/no-fundamental-right-to-strike/article35732405.ece <br class="br">Posthumous publications (1950s and later)

William Ellery Channing photo

“There are times when the assertion of great principles is the best service a man can render society.”

William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) United States Unitarian clergyman

Slavery (1835)
Context: There are times when the assertion of great principles is the best service a man can render society. The present is a moment of bewildering excitement, when men's minds are stormed and darkened by strong passions and fierce conflicts; and also a moment of absorbing worldliness, when the moral law is made to bow to expediency, and its high and strict requirements are denied, or dismissed as metaphysical abstractions or impracticable theories. At such a season, to utter great principles without passion, and in the spirit of unfeigned and universal good-will, and to engrave them deeply and durably on men's minds, is to do more for the world, than to open mines of wealth, or to frame the most successful schemes of policy.

Herbert Marcuse photo

“In conditions of private property … “life-activity” stands in the service of property instead of property standing the service of free life-activity.”

Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979) German philosopher, sociologist, and political theorist

"The Foundations of Historical Materialism," Studies in Critical Philosophy (1972), p. 32

Jack Kevorkian photo

“This could never be a crime in any society which deems itself enlightened.”

Jack Kevorkian (1928–2011) American pathologist, euthanasia activist

Quoted in "Between the dying and the dead: Dr. Jack Kevorkian's life and the battle to Legalize Euthanasia"‎ - Page 16 - by Neal Nicol, Harry Wylie - 2006
2000s, 2006

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. photo

“One of the eternal conflicts out of which life is made up is that between the effort of every man to get the most he can for his services, and that of society, disguised under the name of capital, to get his services for the least possible return.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841–1935) United States Supreme Court justice

Ibid.
1890s

Clive Barker photo

“If we have nothing to do but service our own pleasure – because society has taught us that's all we're worth and we're exiled from positions of authority from which we could actually shape society – then we just become hedonists. Eventually, despite how great it may look on Saturday night, come Monday morning there's just purposelessness.”

Clive Barker (1952) author, film director and visual artist

The Advocate (Feb. 21, 1995)

Related topics