Since government, even in its best state is an evil, the object principally to be aimed at is that we should have as little of it as the general peace of human society will permit.
See Thomas Paine for a similar sentiment.
The social or economic structure of the ideal state is of little concern to me. My desires are modest. Portraits of the head of the government should not exceed a postage stamp in size. No torture and no executions. No music, except coming through earphones, or played in theaters. Freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of art.
I would bring the government back to what it was intended to be - a plain economical government.
Political economy is the science of free society. Its theory and its history alike establish this position. Its fundamental maxims, Laissez-faire and 'Pas trop gouverner' are at war with all kinds of slavery, for they in fact assert that individuals and peoples prosper most when governed least.
A one-hour work-week...would minimize the damage that Congress can do.
Society needs first of all to be free from meddlersthat is, to be let alone.
I please myself with imagining a State at least which can afford to be just to all men, and to treat the individual with respect as a neighbor; which even would not think it inconsistent with its own repose if a few were to live aloof from it, not meddling with it, nor embraced by it, who fulfilled all the duties of neighbors and fellow-men. A State which bore this kind of fruit, and suffered it to drop off as fast as it ripened, would prepare the way for a still more perfect and glorious State, which also I have imagined, but not yet anywhere seen.
The thought about Republicans is, we're supposed to be Jeffersonian. That government governs the best that governs the least.
The best legislative initiative - is the absence of one.
I heartily accept the motto, "That government is best which governs least"; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically.
I'm not for laws. We need a minimum of laws.
A permissive government is a government that leaves control to other sources.
The best thing about Eisenhower's Presidency was his Jeffersonian conviction that there should be as little government and as much golf as possible.
I would like to be interpreted as a liberal libertarian, like leave everybody alone and let them do their own thing.
There are just two rules of governance in a free society: Mind your own business. Keep your hands to yourself.
A well ordered society would be one where the State only had a negative action, comparable to that of a rudder: a light pressure at the right moment to counteract the first suggestion of any loss of equilibrium.
It is essential that the young people of this country learn to respect the right of every man and woman to seek his or her happiness with minimal interference from the government.
Good order results spontaneously when things are let alone
People are probably going to realize they can live with a lot less government than what they thought they needed.
That government is best which governs the least, so taught the courageous founders of this nation. This simple declaration is diametrically opposed to the all too common philosophy that the government should protect and support one from the cradle to the grave. The policy of the Founding Fathers has made our people and our nation strong. The opposite leads inevitably to moral decay.
We must have government that spends less and does less.
Govern wisely, and as little as possible
In all that the people can individually do as well for themselves, government ought not to interfere.
If the average man had had his way there would probably never have been any state. Even today he resents it, classes death with taxes, and yearns for that government which governs least. If he asks for many laws it is only because he is sure that his neighbor needs them; privately he is an unphilosophical anarchist, and thinks laws in his own case superfluous.
We believe that to govern perfectly it is necessary to avoid governing too much.
