"It is bad policy to regulate everything... where things may better regulate themselves and can be better promoted by private exertions; but it is no less bad policy to let those things alone which can only be promoted by interfering social power"
About this Quote
The craft is in the paired phrasing. "Bad policy" appears twice, a rhetorical mirror that forces the reader to accept a symmetrical truth: overreach is stupid, neglect is also stupid. He then splits the world into two categories that sound almost diagnostic. Some domains "better regulate themselves" and thrive on "private exertions" - a nod to the dynamism of enterprise, competition, local knowledge. Others "can only be promoted by interfering social power" - an unapologetic claim that there are collective goods markets underprovide, and that waiting for spontaneous order is just choosing stagnation.
The subtext is national strategy. List wrote in an era when Britain could preach free trade from the top of the ladder while Germany and the United States were still building their industrial base. His target is not "the market" but the political use of market rhetoric to freeze the hierarchy of nations. "Interfering social power" is polite language for tariffs, infrastructure, education, and institution-building: the scaffolding that lets private exertion eventually matter.
What makes it work is its refusal to moralize. List frames state action not as righteousness but as technique - selective, conditional, and justified only where coordination is impossible without it. The quote is a warning against ideology masquerading as policy.
Quote Details
| Topic | Ethics & Morality |
|---|---|
| Source | Verified source: Outlines of American Political Economy (Twelve Letters) (Friedrich List, 1827)
Evidence: It is bad policy to regulate everything and to promote everything, by employing social powers, where things may better regulate themselves and can be better promoted by private exertions; but it is no less bad policy to let those things alone which can only be promoted by interfering social power. (Letter VI (page number varies by edition)). This wording appears embedded in a web presentation of List’s "Outlines of American Political Economy" (said to be "in Twelve Letters to Charles J. Ingersoll"). However, this page is not a reliable primary-source facsimile (it is an adapted/secondary web publication), so it verifies the *attribution and context* but not the *first publication details* with high confidence. Independent corroboration that the quote is in List’s own work: Wikipedia’s Friedrich List article reproduces the sentence and attributes it to his 1841 book, "Das Nationale System der politischen Oekonomie" ("The National System of Political Economy"). ([en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_List?utm_source=openai)) Most likely primary-source locations (two authentic List works): 1) List’s earlier American-era text "Outlines of American Political Economy" (commonly dated 1827) , often described as letters to Charles J. Ingersoll. ([members.tripod.com](https://www.members.tripod.com/~american_almanac/listlieb.htm)) 2) List’s later book "Das Nationale System der politischen Oekonomie" (1841), where the same sentence is widely reprinted in English translation. I was not able, from primary facsimiles in this search session, to open a scan (e.g., Google Books/Archive.org/HathiTrust) of the 1827 or 1841 original/first edition and extract an authoritative page number. Because you asked for the *FIRST* publication, you’ll likely need to confirm whether the quote appears in the 1827 "Outlines" first, and then confirm its presence in the 1841 "National System" as a later reuse. Other candidates (1) The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity in National ... (Patrick ten Brink, 2011) compilation95.2% ... It is bad policy to regulate everything ... where things may better regulate themselves and can be better promote... |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
List, Friedrich. (2026, February 19). It is bad policy to regulate everything... where things may better regulate themselves and can be better promoted by private exertions; but it is no less bad policy to let those things alone which can only be promoted by interfering social power. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/it-is-bad-policy-to-regulate-everything-where-163409/
Chicago Style
List, Friedrich. "It is bad policy to regulate everything... where things may better regulate themselves and can be better promoted by private exertions; but it is no less bad policy to let those things alone which can only be promoted by interfering social power." FixQuotes. February 19, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/it-is-bad-policy-to-regulate-everything-where-163409/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"It is bad policy to regulate everything... where things may better regulate themselves and can be better promoted by private exertions; but it is no less bad policy to let those things alone which can only be promoted by interfering social power." FixQuotes, 19 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/it-is-bad-policy-to-regulate-everything-where-163409/. Accessed 28 Mar. 2026.
