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… is from page 230 of the 2003 edition of Benjamin Constant’s 1815 work Principles of Politics Applicable to All Government [2] (Dennis O’Keefe, trans., Etienne Hoffman, ed.):
If the State wished to oversee individuals in all the operations through which they might potentially harm each other, this would amount to restricting almost all freedom of action. Once having set itself up as the citizens’ guardian, it would soon become their tyrant.