“A society can exist - many do exist - without writing, but no society can exist without reading.”

Socialism (1922), Epilogue (1947)
Context: State and government are the social apparatus of violent coercion and repression. Such an apparatus, the police power, is indispensable in order to prevent anti-social individuals and bands from destroying social co-operation. Violent prevention and suppression of anti-social activities benefit the whole of society and each of its members. But violence and oppression are none the less evils and corrupt those in charge of their application. It is necessary to restrict the power of those in office lest they become absolute despots. Society cannot exist without an apparatus of violent coercion. But neither can it exist if the office holders are irresponsible tyrants free to inflict harm upon those they dislike.

Si, comme le croient plusieurs Canadiens, le Canada ne peut exister sans le Québec, alors il ne mérite tout simplement pas d'exister.
La Colère. Écrits polémiques. Lanctôt Éditeur, 1996 p.257, tome 3

2000-09, Our Duty Is to Remember Sichuan, 2009

Source: Incubus Dreams

Source: Culture and Anarchy (1869), p. 41

Source: The Future As History (1960), Chapter III, Part 9, The Embrarras De Richesses, p. 150

The Laocoön
1800s