Quotation of the Day…

(Don Boudreaux)

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… is from page 428-429 of No. 62 of Cato’s Letters – this one is by Thomas Gordon and first published on January 20th, 1722 – as this letter appears in the beautiful 1995 Liberty Fund edition of Cato’s Letters:

Let people alone, and they will take care of themselves, and do it best; and if they do not, a sufficient punishment will follow their neglect, without the magistrate’s interposition and penalties. It is plain, that such busy care and officious intrusion into the personal affairs, or private actions, thoughts, and imaginations of men, has in it more craft than kindness; and is only a device to mislead people, and pick their pockets, under the false pretence of the publick and their private good. To quarrel with any man for his opinions, humours, or the fashion of his clothes, is an offence taken without being given.