Source: The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science (1962), Chapter 5: On Some Popular Errors Concerning the Scope and Method of Economics, § 10 : The Concept of a Perfect System of Government
Context: It is a double-edged makeshift to entrust an individual or a group of individuals with the authority to resort to violence. The enticement implied is too tempting for a human being. The men who are to protect the community against violent aggression easily turn into the most dangerous aggressors. They transgress their mandate. They misuse their power for the oppression of those whom they were expected to defend against oppression. The main political problem is how to prevent the police power from becoming tyrannical. This is the meaning of all the struggles for liberty.
“The greatest danger against which most men have warned us is that which comes from communicating intellectual secrets to minds become subservient to the authority of an inveterate habit, for such is the power of a long-lasting observance, that most men prefer death to giving up their way of life.”
De Docta Ignorantia (On Learned Ignorance) (1440)
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Nicholas of Cusa 49
German philosopher, theologian, jurist, and astronomer 1401–1464Related quotes
Introduction
Popular Astronomy: A Series of Lectures Delivered at Ipswich (1868)
1860s, Our Composite Nationality (1869)
Source: Psychology: What it has to Teach You about Yourself and Your World (1924), p. 83
Life Without Principle (1863)
Context: As for my own business, even that kind of surveying which I could do with most satisfaction my employers do not want. They would prefer that I should do my work coarsely and not too well, ay, not well enough. When I observe that there are different ways of surveying, my employer commonly asks which will give him the most land, not which is most correct.
Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)
“Most men make use of the first part of their life to render the last part miserable.”
Aphorism 102
Les Caractères (1688), De l'Homme