Quotation by

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Government is an evil it is only the thoughtlessness and vices of men that make it a necessary evil. When all men are good and wise, government will of itself decay.

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Understanding this quote AI Analysis

Shelley is saying that government itself is harmful, but it becomes needed because people are often careless and flawed. If everyone were perfectly good and wise, there would be no need for government, and it would naturally disappear.

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A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take …
I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.

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Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil in its worst state, an intolerable one.