Coercion Quotes - Page 2

• To say that we mutually agree to coercion is not to say that we are required to enjoy it, or even to pretend we enjoy it.

  Garrett Hardin

  Enjoy, Agree

  Garrett James Hardin (1995). “The Immigration Dilemma: Avoiding the Tragedy of the Commons”, F A I R-Federation for American Immigration Reform

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• Law is any application for the official use of coercion that succeeds.

  Bob Black

  Sea, Law, Use

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• Coercion may prevent many transgressions; but it robs even actions which are legal of a part of their beauty. Freedom may lead to many transgressions, but it lends even to vices a less ignoble form.

  Wilhelm von Humboldt

  Beauty, Vices, May

  "The Limits of State Action". Book by Wilhelm von Humboldt. Chapter 8, 1792.

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• This system of encouragement proves serviceable as a preventive of punishment, the attainment of the tickets being a reward, the forfeiture of them the reverse; and, as such, boys seem often more affected by their loss than by coercion.

  Joseph Lancaster

  Encouragement, Loss, Boys

  Joseph Lancaster (1803). “Improvements in Education, as it Respects the Industrious Classes of the Community: Containing, a Short Account of Its Present State, Hints Towards Its Improvement, and a Detail of Some Practical Experiments Conducive to that End”, p.50

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• It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom; without this it goes to wrack and ruin without fail. It is a grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and a sense of duty.

  Albert Einstein

  Education, Mistake, Teaching

  Albert Einstein (2008). “The Essential Einstein: His Greatest Works”, Penguin Group(CA)

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• The social arrangements that produce responsibility are arrangements that create coercion, of some sort.

  Garrett Hardin

  Responsibility, Injustice, Social

  Garrett James Hardin (1995). “The Immigration Dilemma: Avoiding the Tragedy of the Commons”, F A I R-Federation for American Immigration Reform

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• A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.

  John Steinbeck

  Travel, Struggle, Journey

  John Steinbeck (1980). “Travels with Charley in Search of America”, p.8, Penguin

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• Society is held together by our need; we bind it together with legend, myth, coercion, fearing that without it we will be hurled into that void, within which, like the earth before the Word was spoken, the foundations of society are hidden.

  James A. Baldwin

  Society, Together, Foundation

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• The argument for liberty is not an argument against organization, which is one of the most powerful tools human reason can employ, but an argument against all exclusive, privileged, monopolistic organization, against the use of coercion to prevent others from doing better.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Powerful, Organization, Liberty

  "The Constitution of Liberty". Book by Friedrich Hayek. Part I: "The Value of Freedom". Chapter 2: "The Creative Power of a Free Civilization", 1960.

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• Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. Leave the dude alone and he'll figure it out.

  Louis C. K.

  Education, Math, Men

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• One... gets an impression that civilization is something which was imposed on a resisting majority by a minority which understood how to obtain possession of the means to power and coercion. It is, of course, natural to assume that these difficulties are not inherent in the nature of civilization itself but are determined by the imperfections of the cultural forms which have so far been developed.

  Sigmund Freud

  Mean, Civilization, Imperfection

  Sigmund Freud, James Strachey, Anna Freud, Carrie Lee Rothgeb (1961). “The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud”

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• Strength, the American way, is not manifested by threats of criminal prosecution or police state methods.
  Leadership is not manifested by coercion, even against the resented. Greatness is not manifested by unlimited pragmatism, which places such a high premium on the end justifying any means and any methods.

  Margaret Chase Smith

  Mean, Greatness, Police

  "Declaration of Conscience‎" by Margaret Chase Smith, (p. 293), 1972.

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• Democratic nation states remain far more capable of managing the circuit of coercion, taxation and legitimation than any transnational bodies.

  Geoff Mulgan

  Taxation, Body, States

  Geoff Mulgan (2006). “Good and Bad Power: The Ideals and Betrayals of Government”

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• A person who is wise does nothing against their will, nothing with sighing or under coercion.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Wise, Doe, Willpower

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• We should respect each other as rational beings by trying to achieve our goals through reason and persuasion rather than threats and coercion.

  Ron Paul

  Goal, Trying, Persuasion

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• It is indeed probable that more harm and misery have been caused by men determined to use coercion to stamp out a moral evil than by men intent on doing evil.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Men, Thinking, Tyrants

  "The Constitution of Liberty". Book by Friedrich Hayek. Part II: "Freedom and the Law". Chapter 9: "Coercion and the State", 1960.

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• The marketplace is a wondrous institution. It harnesses the self-interest of each of us and puts it to work for the benefit of all. And it does so without intruding upon our desires, our privacy, or our freedom. It is regulation by reality, not by coercion.

  Harry Browne

  Reality, Self, Desire

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• My method is conversion, not coercion, it is self-suffering, not the suffering of the tyrant. I know that method to be infallible.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Self, Tyrants, Suffering

  Mahatma Gandhi, Dennis Dalton (1996). “Gandhi: Selected Political Writings”, p.99, Hackett Publishing

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• Instruments of coercion, once created, have a tendency to find their own natural masters.

  George F. Kennan

  Natural, Masters, Tendencies

  George F. Kennan (2013). “Encounter with Kennan: The Great Debate”, p.208, Routledge

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• Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Children, Hypocrite

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia II, Correspondence 1782-1786”, p.80, Cosimo, Inc.

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• If he who employs coercion against me could mould me to his purposes by argument, no doubt he would. He pretends to punish me because his argument is strong; but he really punishes me because his argument is weak.

  William Godwin

  Strong, Doubt, Purpose

  William Godwin (1798). “Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, and Its Influence on Morals and Happiness: By William Godwin”, p.337

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• The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Government, Political

  Thomas Jefferson (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Inaugural addresses and messages. Replies to public addresses. Indian addresses. Miscellaneous: 1. Notes on Virginia; 2. Biographical sketches of distinguished men; 3. The batture of New Orleans”, p.400

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• One had to cram all this stuff into one's mind for the examinations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect on me that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year.

  Albert Einstein

  Motivational, School, Years

  Albert Einstein, Stephen W. Hawking (2007). “A Stubbornly Persistent Illusion: The Essential Scientific Works of Albert Einstein”, p.346, Running Press

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• Government is about coercion. Limiting government is the single most important instrument for guaranteeing liberty. We're working on a third generation which has little in the way of education about what our Constitution means and why it was written. Thus, we've fallen easy prey to charlatens, quacks, and hustlers.

  Walter E. Williams

  Mean, Government, Important

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• Mythological symbols touch and exhilarate centers of life beyond the reach of vocabularies of reason and coercion.

  Joseph Campbell

  Vocabulary, Reason, Symbols

  Joseph Campbell (1968). “The Masks of God: Creative Mythology”

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