In dealing with the State, we ought to remember that its institutions are not aboriginal, though they existed before we were born; that they are not superior to the citizen; that every one of them was once the act of a single man; every law and usage was a man’s expedient to meet a particular case; that they all are imitable, all alterable; we may make as good; we may make better.
Tag: Ralph Waldo Emerson
The novelty of common sense
Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing.
Democracy runs to anarchy
Democracy is morose, and runs to anarchy.
Man exists for himself
Man exists for his own sake and not to add a laborer to the State.