The Rule of Nobody Quotes

“America has succumbed to its own intermediate goal. Purging official discretion, not advancing the public good, has become the goal of the Rule of Law. Better to prevent a bad choice, even at the cost of banning all good choices. Unquestioned assumptions are the most powerful forces in human affairs. If people assume something is right or wrong, they’ll act on it even to the point of self-destruction. Just as the inhabitants of Easter Island built giant statues until there were no more resources to support life on the island, Americans seem content to pile society high with detailed regulations as long as they succeed in preventing anyone with responsibility from actually making a decision.”
― Philip K. Howard, The Rule of Nobody: Saving America from Dead Laws and Senseless Bureaucracy

“Overthrow the bureaucracy, and return to a system based on human responsibility.”
― Philip K. Howard, The Rule of Nobody: Saving America from Dead Laws and Senseless Bureaucracy

“The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas,” John Maynard Keynes famously observed, “but in escaping from the old ones.”
― Philip K. Howard, The Rule of Nobody: Saving America from Dead Laws and Senseless Bureaucracy

“We must abandon our belief that human choice denigrates the Rule of Law.”
― Philip K. Howard, The Rule of Nobody: Saving America from Dead Laws and Senseless Bureaucracy

“Automatic law corrodes our freedom”
― Philip K. Howard, The Rule of Nobody: Saving America from Dead Laws and Senseless Bureaucracy

“Mindless rules, not accountable officials, are the enemy of freedom.”
― Philip K. Howard, The Rule of Nobody: Saving America from Dead Laws and Senseless Bureaucracy

“In 2010, 70 percent of federal tax revenue was consumed by three entitlement programs (Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security)”
― Philip K. Howard, The Rule of Nobody: Saving America from Dead Laws and Senseless Bureaucracy