September 10, 2025

Liberty means responsibility, that is why most men dread it

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950), Irish playwright and critic, Man and Superman (1903), The Cynic’s Lexicon, Jonathon Green, ed. (London: 1986), p.190

Which responsibilities have you willingly accepted over the course of your life? Which ones have you consistently attempted to avoid?

The condition of liberty requires some measure of restraint, if only self-imposed. In the absence of that restraint, an external force is required to one degree or another. This we call government. To the extent that we can take genuine responsibility for our actions, government is unnecessary. Because we can’t, it is.