“But it can be laid down as a rule that those who speak most of liberty are least inclined to use it.”
Source: The New Industrial State (1967), Chapter XXXV, Section 5, p. 398
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John Kenneth Galbraith 207
American economist and diplomat 1908–2006Related quotes

“The unconscious, which those who always speak of it least possess.”
J. Agee, trans. (1989), p. 145
Das Geheimherz der Uhr [The Secret Heart of the Clock] (1987)

Source: Simone Weil : An Anthology (1986), Human Personality (1943), p. 57

1900s, The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses (1900), National Duties
Variant: No hard and fast rule can be laid down as to where our legislation shall stop in interfering between man and man, between interest and interest.
Context: No hard-and-fast rule can be laid down as to where our legislation shall stop in interfering between man and man, between interest and interest. All that can be said is that it is highly undesirable, on the one hand, to weaken individual initiative, and, on the other hand, that in a constantly increasing number of cases we shall find it necessary in the future to shackle cunning as in the past we have shackled force. It is not only highly desirable but necessary that there should be legislation which shall carefully shield the interests of wage-workers, and which shall discriminate in favor of the honest and humane employer by removing the disadvantage under which he stands when compared with unscrupulous competitors who have no conscience and will do right only under fear of punishment. Nor can legislation stop only with what are termed labor questions. The vast individual and corporate fortunes, the vast combinations of capital, which have marked the development of our industrial system create new conditions, and necessitate a change from the old attitude of the state and the nation toward property.

From his speech given on 28 November 1960 at laying the foundation-stone of the building of the Law Institute of India, in: p. 15
Presidents of India, 1950-2003

Misattributed, Jackson's personal book of maxims
Context: It is man's highest interest not to violate, or attempt to violate, the rules which Infinite Wisdom has laid down. The means by which men are to attain great elevation may be classed in three divisions — physical, mental, and moral. Whatever relates to health, belongs to the first; whatever relates to the improvement of the mind, belongs to the second. The formation of good manners and virtuous habits constitutes the third.

“Advice is seldom welcome; and those who want it the most always like it the least.”
29 January 1748
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)

“Those who have least to do are generally the most busy people in the world.”
Vol. 2, letter 3.
Sir Charles Grandison (1753–1754)