Quotation of the Day…

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… is from page 124 of George Stigler‘s 1965 paper “The Economist and the State,” as this paper is reprinted as Chapter 11 of the 1982 collection of some of Stigler’s writings titled The Economist as Preacher and Other Essays (footnote deleted):

James Mill’s oldest son, surprisingly enough, put up a stronger case against state control of economic life than his much more conservative father had. John Stuart did not follow his father in accepting the invariable wisdom of the democratic state, possibly because he was writing well after the Reform Act. He rested the case much more on the defense of individual liberty, and fully three of the five reasons he gave for favoring laissez faire as a practical maxim were variations on the importance of the dignity, independence, self-reliance, and development of the individual.