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Quote by Paul Valery

“Liberty is the hardest test that one can inflict on a people. To know how to be free is not given equally to all men and all nations.”

Quote by Paul Valery

Author

Paul Valery
Paul Valery

Paul Valéry was a French poet, philosopher, and literary critic. Born on October 30, 1871, and died on July 20, 1945. Valéry is known for his profound poetry and philosophical thoughts, being an important representative of Symbolist literature. more

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“Society is composed of men, and every man is a FREE agent. Since man is free, he can choose; since he can choose, he can err; since he can err, he can suffer. I go further: He must err and he must suffer; for his starting point is ignorance, and in his ignorance he sees before him an infinite number of unknown roads, all of which save one lead to error.”

“[T]here are, at bottom, basically two ways to order social affairs, Coercively, through the mechanisms of the state - what we can call political society. And voluntarily, through the private interaction of individuals and associations - what we can call civil society. ... In a civil society, you make the decision. In a political society, someone else does. ... Civil society is based on reason, eloquence, and persuasion, which is to say voluntarism. Political society, on the other hand, is based on force.”