• Best of Web
  • Home
  • Classics
  • Blog
  • Radio
  • Heroes
  • Books
  • Quotes
  • Talks
  • News
  • About
Menu

Lawrence W. Reed

  • Best of Web
  • Home
  • Classics
  • Blog
  • Radio
  • Heroes
  • Books
  • Quotes
  • Talks
  • News
  • About
Spinoza.jpg

Spinoza on Government

October 27, 2018

“The ultimate aim of government is not to rule or restrain by fear, nor to exact obedience, but contrariwise, to free every man from fear, that he may live in all possible security; in other words, to strengthen his natural right to exist and work without injury to himself or others. No, the object of government is not to change men from rational beings into beasts or puppets, but to enable them to develop their minds and bodies in security, and to employ their reason unshackled; neither showing hatred, anger, or deceit, nor watched with the eyes of jealousy and injustice. In fact, the true aim of government is liberty…The real disturbers of the peace are those who, in a free state, seek to curtail the liberty of judgment which they are unable to tyrannize over” — 17th Century Jewish-Dutch political philosopher Baruch Spinoza in Theological-Political Treatise (1670).

Read More
← Milton on LibertySowell on Foreign Aid →
No results found

Recent “Best of Web”

Featured
Capitalists Have Already Solved the Grocery Store Problem
Apr 18, 2026
Capitalists Have Already Solved the Grocery Store Problem
Apr 18, 2026

Comrade Morondami Wants to Play Grocery Store.

Apr 18, 2026
The Latest on the Supreme Court DEI Hire
Mar 31, 2026
The Latest on the Supreme Court DEI Hire
Mar 31, 2026

Dumb as a box of rocks.

Mar 31, 2026
Honored by the Left, Wrong on Everything
Mar 17, 2026
Honored by the Left, Wrong on Everything
Mar 17, 2026

Paul Ehrlich: Time and again, he predicted doom on the assumption that humanity is a plague on the Earth.

Mar 17, 2026

Recent Quotes

Featured
Murphy on America
Feb 11, 2025
Murphy on America
Feb 11, 2025

“The true meaning of America, you ask? It’s in a Texas rodeo, in a policeman’s badge, in the sound of laughing children, in a political rally, in a newspaper. ... In all these things, and many more, you’ll find America. In all these things, you’ll find freedom. And freedom is what America means to the world. And to me” — Actor, poet, and the most decorated American of World War II, Audie Murphy.

Feb 11, 2025
Mill on Freedom
Feb 1, 2025
Mill on Freedom
Feb 1, 2025

“The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. Each is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily, or mental and spiritual. Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest.”

Feb 1, 2025
Best-Selling Japanese Novelist Eiji Yoshikawa on Do-Gooders
Mar 20, 2023
Best-Selling Japanese Novelist Eiji Yoshikawa on Do-Gooders
Mar 20, 2023

“There’s nothing more frightening than a half-baked do-gooder who knows nothing of the world but takes it upon himself to tell the world what’s good for it — from his book, Musashi.

Mar 20, 2023

Recent Blogs

Featured
April 30 in Roman History
Apr 30, 2026
April 30 in Roman History
Apr 30, 2026

Christianity not only survived the evil Diocletianic Persecution, it emerged stronger than ever, underscoring the prophecy of the early Christian author Tertullian that “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”

Apr 30, 2026
Another Bad Day for the Spanish Navy
Apr 24, 2026
Another Bad Day for the Spanish Navy
Apr 24, 2026

Empires come, empires go. It’s a law of history.

Apr 24, 2026
Can a Free Society Survive Without a Spiritual Foundation?
Apr 24, 2026
Can a Free Society Survive Without a Spiritual Foundation?
Apr 24, 2026

What does it mean to have a “spiritual foundation”? Can we think of it as completely independent of any notion of an intelligent Creator?

Apr 24, 2026