Source: "The theory of economic regulation," 1971, p. 3; Lead paragraph
Context: The state --the machinery and power of the state-- is a potential resource or threat to every industry in the society. With its power to prohibit or compel, to take or give money, the state can and does selectively help or hurt a vast number of industries. That political juggernaut, the petroleum industry, is an immense consumer of political benefits, and simultaneously the underwriters of marine insurance have their more modest repast. The central tasks of the theory of economic regulation are to explain who will receive the benefits or burdens of regulation, what form regulation will take, and the effects of regulation upon the allocation of resources.
“Every state of society is as luxurious as it can be. Men always take the best they can get.”
April 14, 1778
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol III
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Samuel Johnson 362
English writer 1709–1784Related quotes

“You can always rely on a society of equals taking it out on the women.”
The Death of William Posters (London: W. H. Allen, 1965), p. 87.

1770s, Common Sense (1776)
Context: Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries BY A GOVERNMENT, which we might expect in a country WITHOUT GOVERNMENT, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.

Source: [Bob, Sipchen, http://www.aegis.com/news/lt/1997/LT970701.html, Straight Talk From a Straight Shooter Journeys: Joycelyn Elders was known for her outspokenness during her run, Los Angeles Times, E-1, July 3, 1997, 2007-05-20]

Speech at 2016 Republican National Convention http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/trailguide/la-na-republican-convention-2016-live-melania-trump-speech-is-the-wrong-1468897600-htmlstory.html (July 18, 2016)
A Christian Manifesto (1982)
Context: We must understand something very thoroughly. If society — if the state gives the rights, it can take them away — they're not inalienable. If the states give the rights, they can change them and manipulate them. But this was not the view of the founding fathers of this country. They believed, although not all of them were individual Christians, that there was a Creator and that this Creator gave the inalienable rights — this upon which our country was founded and which has given us the freedoms which we still have — even the freedoms which are being used now to destroy the freedoms.

“As Harry puts it, men and women can never be friends because 'the sex part always gets in the way.”
Source: When Harry Met Sally

1770s, Common Sense (1776)
Context: Society is produced by our wants, and government by wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher. Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil.

Speech at Islamia College for women (25 March 1940)
Context: I have always maintained that no nation can ever be worthy of its existence that cannot take its women along with the men. No struggle can ever succeed without women participating side by side with men. There are two powers in the world; one is the sword and the other is the pen. There is a great competition and rivalry between the two. There is a third power stronger than both, that of the women.