ome of his rights
in order that government may protect the remainder. Let a man have the
use of both his hands, and the enjoyment of all his rights, and he will
then be more competent to his own defence; his rights will be more
respected by those who might otherwise be disposed to invade them; he
will want less the assistance and protection of others; and we shall
need much less government than we now have.

If individuals choose to form an association or government, for the
mutual protection of each other's rights, why bargain for the protection
of an _indefinite_ portion of them, at the price of giving to the
association itself liberty to violate the equally indefinite remainder?
By such a contract, a man really surrenders every thing, and secures
nothing. Such a contract of government would be a burlesque on the
wisdom of asses. Such a contract never was, nor ever will be
_voluntarily_ formed. Yet all our governments act on that principle; and
so far as they act upon it, they are as essentially usurping and
tyrannical as any governments can be. If a man pay his proportion of the
aggregate cost of protecting all the rights of each of the members of
the association, he thereby acquires a claim upon the association to
have his own rights protected without diminution.

The ultimate truth on this subject is, that man has an inalienable right
to so much personal liberty as he will use without invading the rights
of others. This liberty is an inherent right of his nature and his
faculties. It is an inherent right of his nature and his faculties to
develope themselves freely, and without restraint from other natures and
faculties, that have no superior prerogatives to his own. And this right
has only this limit, viz., that he do not carry the exercise of his own
liberty so far as to restrain or infringe the equally free developement
of the natures and faculties of others. The dividing line between the
equal liberties of each must never be transgressed by either. This
principle is the foundation and essence of law and of civil right. And
legitimate government is formed by the voluntary association of
individuals, for the mutual protection of each of them in the enjoyment
of this natural liberty, against those who may be disposed to invade it.
Each individual being secured in the enjoyment of this liberty, must
then take the responsibility of his own happiness and well-being. If his
necessities require more than his faculties