"Is not the minimal state, the framework for utopia, an inspiring vision? The minimal state treats us as inviolate individuals, who may not be used in certain ways by others as means or tools or instruments or resources; it treats us as persons having individual right with the dignity this constitutes. Treating us with respect by respecting our rights, it allows us, individually or with whom we please, to choose our life and to realize our ends and our conception of ourselves, insofar as we can, aided by the voluntary cooperation of other individuals possessing the same dignity. How dare any state or group of individuals do more? Or less?"
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Robert Nozick, in Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974), Ch. 10 : A Framework for Utopia; Utopia and the Minimal State, p. 333
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Utopia
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Utopia
57 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Utopia →
Related Quotes
"Heaven is home. Utopia is here. Nirvana is now."
"Utopianism is manifest in countless historical examples of those that have dared to challenge the status quo and asse…"
"In shattering the perceived rigidity of the present, utopianism paves the way for change. Perfect worlds may not be r…"
"There were a lot of utopias in the nineteenth century, wonderful societies that we might possibly construct. Those we…"
"The ground-root folly of this piteous philantropy is thinking to distribute indivisibles, and make equality in things…"
"Utopia lies at the horizon. When I draw nearer by two steps, she retreats two steps. If I proceed ten steps forward, …"
"Utopias and other models of government, based on the public good, may be inconceivable because of the disordered huma…"
"It is solemnly said that this is a transition period; but the whole history of humanity has been one continual transi…"
"[W]e have crossed a great divide, between what we used to do in all of previous human history and what we do now. Uto…"
"How can there ever be a utopia? There is no right way to live, which we’ve simply failed to stumble upon. There is no…"