Bell Hooks (1952) American author, feminist, and social activist
Variant: Sometimes people try to destroy you, precisely because they recognize your power — not because they don’t see it, but because they see it and they don’t want it to exist.
“Governments exist on confidence. Not on liberty. Not on righteousness. Not on force. They exist because people believe that they do. Because they don’t ask questions.”
Source: The Expanse, Tiamat's Wrath (2019), Chapter 34 (p. 357)
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Do you have more details about the quote "Governments exist on confidence. Not on liberty. Not on righteousness. Not on force. They exist because people believe …" by Daniel Abraham?
Daniel Abraham141
speculative fiction writer from the United States 1969Related quotes
“A leftist government doesn't exist because being on the left has nothing to do with governments.”
Gilles Deleuze (1925–1995) French philosopher
Frédéric Bastiat book The Law
Source: The Law (1850)
Context: Life, faculties, production — in other words, individuality, liberty, property — this is man. And in spite of the cunning of artful political leaders, these three gifts from God precede all human legislation, and are superior to it. Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.
Ikujiro Nonaka (1935) Japanese business theorist
"The Practical Wisdom of Ikujiro Nonaka," 2008
Éric Zemmour (1958) French essayist
Source: Eric Zemmour: "If I don't run, it will be seen as desertion, as treason" https://palnws.be/2021/09/eric-zemmour-als-ik-me-geen-kandidaat-zou-stellen-zal-het-worden-gezien-als-desertie-als-verraad/ <br class="br">Context: I am aware of the enthusiasm that my potential Presidential candidacy can evoke.
“She believed in angels, and, because she believed, they existed”
Clarice Lispector book The Hour of the Star
Source: The Hour of the Star
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
1860s, On Democratic Government (1864)
Context: It has long been a grave question whether any government, not too strong for the liberties of its people, can be strong enough to maintain its existence in great emergencies. On this point the present rebellion brought our government to a severe test, and a presidential election occurring in regular course during the rebellion, added not a little to the strain.
“Authority that does not exist for Liberty is not authority but force.”
John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton (1834–1902) British politician and historian
Selected Writings of Lord Acton, ed. J. Rufus Fears, 3 vols. (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1985-88), 3:519
Benjamin Ricketson Tucker (1854–1939) American journalist and anarchist
Individual Liberty (1926), Anarchism and Crime
Context: Where crime exists, force must exist to repress it. Who denies it? Certainly not Liberty; certainly not the Anarchists. Anarchism is not a revival of non-resistance, though there may be non-resistants in its ranks. The direction of Mr. Ball's attack implies that we would let robbery, rape, and murder make havoc in the community without lifting a finger to stay their brutal, bloody work. On the contrary, we are the sternest enemies of invasion of person and property, and, although chiefly busy in destroying the causes thereof, have no scruples against such heroic treatment of its immediate manifestations as circumstances and wisdom may dictate. It is true that we look forward to the ultimate disappearance of the necessity of force even for the purpose of repressing crime, but this, though involved in it as a necessary result, is by no means a necessary condition of the abolition of the State.