The State

The State interferes either to defend some of the parties concerned against the others, or to defend itself against all the parties concerned.

But there are moral questions in which the State concerns itself, which do not fall under the heads of games, sports, nor fine arts, such as drinking, opium-eating, tobacco-smoking, and the use of other stimulants.

Taking some of the minor objects of the State's solicitude by way of illustration, we find that at one time or another it has interfered more or less with nearly all popular games, many sports, nearly the whole of the fine arts, and many harmless and harmful pleasures which cannot be brought under any of those three heads.

But all these associations seem to be subordinate to the association of the State, which aims not at a temporary advantage but at one covering the whole of life.

But all associations are parts as it were of the association of the State.

All these associations then appear to be parts of the association of the State;

Turn now for illustrations of the protest against the dominant individualism of the day to the language of three men of genius who agreed in nothing but in their common distrust of laissez faire, and in their conviction that some great exertion of the authority of the State was needed for the cure of the diseases which afflicted the commonwealth.

And this prevention was, in Southey’s judgment, to be effected by the moral authority of the Church and the action of the State.

But those who while performing public services have squandered their own property, bring the state into disrepute instead of rendering her service.

that they have squandered much of their property upon themselves, while the state has received but a small share;

Do you, therefore, show that you have expended one single copper coin on the state—you, who have inherited two estates which performed public services.

but as to those who consider as lost whatever money they spend upon the state, you should bring them into the list of those who make advance contributions, and not suffer them to run away from their duty.

For my part, men of the jury, I should be most happy to see myself enjoying the material prosperity which was mine before, and remaining in the group of the Three Hundred, but since, partly through having to share in the misfortunes common to all those who are engaged in mining works, and partly through having met heavy reverses in my private business, I have lost my estate, and now at the last mu …

Will not Athens be a laughing-stock if she is discovered enacting laws for the deliverance of temple robbers?

For you cannot be unconscious that our city has often owed her safety to the warlike adventures of our navy and our land forces;

If our city enacts laws for her own discomfiture, laws exactly contrary to her own interests, do you think she will ever be able to play her true part in the world?

certain mercenary orators here among us, men who are not ashamed to devote their lives to his service, thinking that they are carrying home his bribes, but blind to the fact that they are bartering all the interests of the State, and their own as well, for a paltry profit.

what a disgrace if one, with only the tradition of Macedonia behind him, so cheerfully courts danger that, in the task of extending his sway, he has been wounded in every limb on the battle-field, but Athenians, whose ancestral boast it is in war to yield to none and conquer all, should renounce, through indolence or cowardice, alike the deeds of their ancestors and the interests of their fatherland.

I thought that it was not proper for me as a private individual to put public slaves to the torture;

And yet the laws enact that any man’s estate shall be confiscated who, after guaranteeing any sum due to the state, does not make good his guarantee;

And now that I have done so, if I can prove that the slaves belong to Arethusius, to whom they are stated in the information to belong, I relinquish to the state the three fourths which under the law are given to the private citizen filing the information;

And all of you who stayed at home, listen to me in silence, while I set forth before you all the facts, and produce in support of every statement that I make the laws and decrees both of the senate and the people, and the testimony of witnesses.

For the suit is not a private one concerning Polycles and myself alone, but it touches also the interests of the state as well.

And the people, hearing of this, gave me a vote of thanks, and invited me to dine in the Prytaneum.

For on the question whether this or that is expedient and which choice the State might more rightly prefer, there are few arguments to be presented, unless by such persons as wish to prattle aimlessly, nor would anyone have occasion to state them a second time.

Then, well within the memory of men not much past the prime of life, it became a tolerated, indeed a probable or plausible, opinion, that the State was abdicating its functions by remaining passive, and should not only leave the road open for ability, but give active assistance in suppressing unfavourable external conditions and equalizing opportunities.

Apart from rules of this kind, it is generally true that our law of property is individualist as between the owner and the State.

Indeed, if we insisted on our institutions being or appearing logical (as happily we do not), the individual might say with some plausibility to the State: