“Fear is in almost all cases a wretched instrument of government”

—  Adam Smith

Source: The Wealth of Nations (1776), Book V, Chapter I, Part III, p. 862.
Context: Fear is in almost all cases a wretched instrument of government, and ought in particular never to be employed against any order of men who have the smallest pretensions to independency.

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Adam Smith 175
Scottish moral philosopher and political economist 1723–1790

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