The need for Government is the need for force; where force is unnecessary, there is no need for Government.
Meaning of the quote
The quote means that the government exists to use force when needed, but when force is not necessary, there is no need for the government. In other words, the government is only useful when it has to use power to keep people in line, but if people can get along without the government using force, then the government is not needed.
About Rose Wilder Lane
Rose Wilder Lane was an influential American writer and the daughter of author Laura Ingalls Wilder. She was one of the key advocates of the American libertarian movement, alongside other female writers like Ayn Rand and Isabel Paterson.
More quotes from Rose Wilder Lane
Making the best of things is… a damn poor way of dealing with them. My whole life has been a series of escapes from that quicksand.
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The need for Government is the need for force; where force is unnecessary, there is no need for Government.
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I came out of the Soviet Union no longer a communist, because I believed in personal freedom.
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Writing fiction is… an endless and always defeated effort to capture some quality of life without killing it.
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The real protection of life and property, always and everywhere.
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As novices, we think we’re entirely responsible for the way people treat us. I have long since learned that we are responsible only for the way we treat people.
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