“Generosity is a virtue for individuals, not Governments. When governments are generous it is with other people's money, other people's safety, other people's future.”
The Children of Men (1992)
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P. D. James 26
English crime writer 1920–2014Related quotes
As quoted in Global History, Volume Two : The Industrial Revolution to the Age of Globalization (2008) by Jerry Weiner, Mark Willner, George A. Hero and Bonnie-Anne Briggs, p. 175
Context: Mexicans: let us now pledge all our efforts to obtain and consolidate the benefits of peace. Under its auspices, the protection of the laws and of the authorities will be sufficient for all the inhabitants of the Republic. May the people and the government respect the rights of all. Between individuals, as between nations, peace means respect for the rights of others.
TV interview for Thames TV This Week (5 February 1976) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=102953
Leader of the Opposition
America's Drug Forum interview (1991)
Context: The proper role of government is exactly what John Stuart Mill said in the middle of the 19th century in On Liberty. The proper role of government is to prevent other people from harming an individual. Government, he said, never has any right to interfere with an individual for that individual's own good.
The case for is exactly as strong and as weak as the case for prohibiting people from overeating. We all know that overeating causes more deaths than drugs do. If it's in principle OK for the government to say you must not consume drugs because they'll do you harm, why isn't it all right to say you must not eat too much because you'll do harm? Why isn't it all right to say you must not try to go in for skydiving because you're likely to die? Why isn't it all right to say, "Oh, skiing, that's no good, that's a very dangerous sport, you'll hurt yourself"? Where do you draw the line?
“It is easy to be lenient at other people's expense, and call it generosity of mind.”
It is right to imprison drug addicts - argues Theodore Dalrymple http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/001744.php (March 18, 2008).
The Social Affairs Unit (2006 - 2008)
Source: Interest and Inflation Free Money (1995), Chapter Six, What Can I Do to Help in the Transition Period?, p. 108
Eat the Rich (1999)
“War is a convenient fix for government problems if it happens somewhere else. To other people.”
Treason's Shore (Inda #4, 2009)
How to Explain Conservatism to Your Squishy Liberal Friends: Individualism 'R' Us
Why I Am a Conservative (1996)
Speech to the Constitutional Convention (September 17, 1787); reported in James Madison, Journal of the Federal Convention, ed. E. H. Scott (1893), p. 742.
Constitutional Convention of 1787