Studies in the History of Political Philosophy Before and After Rousseau, Volume 2The University Press, 1925 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
A. G. LITTLE absolute abstract action admitted agnostic appeal Areopagitica argument assert Burke Burke's claim Comte Comte's conceived conception consciousness consequence constitutional corporate deny distinction doctrine doubtless duty East India Bill element embodied enquiry existence experience fact faith Fichte Fichte's Werke force former freedom French Revolution given Grundlage hand Hegel historical method human idea of Right ideal impossible individual instinct intellectual justice Kant Kant's knowledge less liberty limits logical man's mankind matter Mazzini means metaphysical method mind Montesquieu moral law nation nature necessity negative duties never object once passage Philosophy of History political philosophy positive practical principle progress Protestantism purely question realised reason Rechtslehre recognised relation religion result Revolution Rousseau sanction sense side Social Contract society speculative sphere spirit stage theory things thinkers thought tion true truth unity universal Vaughan vidual vital whole words writings
Popular passages
Page 46 - Government is not made in virtue of natural rights, which may and do exist in total independence of it ; and exist in much greater clearness, and in a much greater degree of abstract perfection : but their abstract perfection is their practical defect. By having a right to every thing they want every thing. Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants.
Page 11 - The question with me is, not whether you have a right to render your people miserable ; but whether it is / not your interest to make them happy. It is not, what a lawyer tells me I may do ; but what humanity, reason, and justice, tell me I ought to do.
Page 33 - Our political system is placed in a just correspondence and symmetry with the order of the world, and with the mode of existence decreed to a permanent body composed of transitory parts...
Page 34 - When I hear the simplicity of contrivance aimed at and boasted of in any new political constitutions, I am at no loss to decide that the artificers are grossly ignorant of their trade, or totally negligent of their duty. The simple governments are fundamentally defective, to say no worse of them. ... If you were to contemplate society in but one point of view, all these simple modes of polity are infinitely captivating. In effect each would answer its single end much more perfectly than the more...
Page 52 - Society is indeed a contract. Subordinate contracts for objects of mere occasional interest may be dissolved at pleasure; but the state ought not to be considered as nothing better than a partnership agreement in a trade of pepper and coffee, calico or tobacco, or some other such low concern, to be taken up for a little temporary interest and to be dissolved by the fancy of the parties.
Page 44 - One of the first motives to civil society, and which becomes one of its fundamental rules, is, that no man should be judge in his own cause.
Page 7 - Sir, I think you must perceive that I am resolved this day to have nothing at all to do with the question of the right of taxation. Some gentlemen startle — but it is true ; I put it totally out of the question. It is less than nothing in my consideration.
Page 8 - I do not examine whether the giving away a man's money be a power excepted and reserved out of the general trust of government ; and how far all mankind, in all forms of polity, are entitled to an exercise of that right by the charter of nature. Or whether, on the contrary, a right of taxation is necessarily involved in the general principle of legislation, and inseparable from the ordinary supreme power. These...
Page 55 - They have a right to the fruits of their industry, and to the means of making their industry fruitful. They have a right to the acquisitions of their parents, to the nourishment and improvement of their offspring, to instruction in life and to consolation in death.
Page 15 - He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper. This amicable conflict with difficulty obliges us to an intimate acquaintance with our object, and compels us to consider it in all its relations. It will not suffer us to be superficial.