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Philip K. Howard Quotes

Coercion by government, the main fear of our founding fathers, is now its most common attribute.

Coercion by government, the main fear of our founding fathers, is now its most common attribute.

Philip K. Howard
Father, Government, Coercion

Rights are not the language of democracy. Compromise is what democracy is about. Rights are the language of freedom, and are absolute because their role is to protect our liberty. By using the absolute power of freedom to accomplish reforms of democracy, we have undermined democracy and diminished our freedom.

Philip K. Howard
Rights, Liberty, Democracy
Philip K. Howard (2011). “The Death of Common Sense: How Law Is Suffocating America”, p.171, Random House

We've been trained to squint into a legal microscope, hoping that we can judge any dispute against the standard of a perfect society where everyone will agree what's fair, and where accidents will be extinct, and risk will be no more.

Philip K. Howard
Motivation, Inspiration, Perfect
"Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

We should stop looking to law to provide the final answer.... Law cannot save us from ourselves.... We have to go out and try to accomplish our goals and resolve disagreements by doing what we think is right. That energy and resourcefulness, not millions of legal cubicles, is what was great about America. Let judgment and personal conviction be important again.

Philip K. Howard
Thinking, Law, America

Human nature turns out to be more complicated than the idea that people will get along if only the rules are clear enough. Uncertainty, the ultimate evil that modern law seeks to eradicate, generally fosters cooperation, not the opposite.

Philip K. Howard
Law, Opposites, Ideas
Philip K. Howard (2011). “The Death of Common Sense: How Law Is Suffocating America”, p.183, Random House

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