"If man asks for many laws it is only because he is sure that his neighbor needs them; privately he is an unphilosophical anarchist, and thinks laws in his own case superfluous"
About this Quote
Durant skewers a familiar civic performance: the citizen who loves “law and order” mostly as a leash for someone else. The line lands because it treats legalism not as principle but as projection. “Many laws” isn’t framed as a noble hunger for justice; it’s the telltale sign of suspicion. You want the rulebook thick when you’re convinced the real problem lives next door.
The bite is in “privately.” Publicly, we wrap ourselves in constitutional rhetoric; in our own case, we suddenly discover nuance, exceptional circumstances, and the moral beauty of discretion. Durant’s phrase “unphilosophical anarchist” is surgical: not an ideologue committed to freedom, but a practical rule-breaker who resents constraint when it touches his habits, his shortcuts, his tribe. Law becomes something like traffic: essential for everyone else, negotiable for me.
As a historian, Durant is also pointing at a pattern older than any one government: societies expand codes fastest when trust is low. The quote sits comfortably in the 20th-century churn he lived through, when mass bureaucracy, policing, and ideological fear made “more laws” feel like safety. Durant punctures that comfort by exposing the emotional engine behind it: self-exemption. The subtext is less “laws are bad” than “our motives are crooked.” The real threat isn’t anarchy in the streets; it’s the quiet anarchy of the respectable, the belief that rules are for other people - and that’s exactly how legitimacy erodes.
The bite is in “privately.” Publicly, we wrap ourselves in constitutional rhetoric; in our own case, we suddenly discover nuance, exceptional circumstances, and the moral beauty of discretion. Durant’s phrase “unphilosophical anarchist” is surgical: not an ideologue committed to freedom, but a practical rule-breaker who resents constraint when it touches his habits, his shortcuts, his tribe. Law becomes something like traffic: essential for everyone else, negotiable for me.
As a historian, Durant is also pointing at a pattern older than any one government: societies expand codes fastest when trust is low. The quote sits comfortably in the 20th-century churn he lived through, when mass bureaucracy, policing, and ideological fear made “more laws” feel like safety. Durant punctures that comfort by exposing the emotional engine behind it: self-exemption. The subtext is less “laws are bad” than “our motives are crooked.” The real threat isn’t anarchy in the streets; it’s the quiet anarchy of the respectable, the belief that rules are for other people - and that’s exactly how legitimacy erodes.
Quote Details
| Topic | Ethics & Morality |
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