Freedom Quote by Lyn Nofziger

“That government is not a necessary good but an unavoidable evil” flips a civic lullaby into a grudging lull: don’t romanticize the state, tolerate it. The line works because it refuses both team jerseys. It’s not the libertarian flourish that government is always tyrannical, and it’s not the liberal comfort that institutions are our shared salvation. It’s a cold appraisal of trade-offs, delivered with the blunt symmetry of a proverb. “Necessary good” is the phrase people use to sanctify bureaucracy; Nofziger swaps in “unavoidable evil,” admitting coercion is baked into governance, even when the outcomes are defensible.

The intent is less nihilism than inoculation. If government is an “evil,” you stop expecting purity: laws require enforcement, budgets require taking, policy requires winners and losers. The subtext is a warning against the kind of political rhetoric that sells administration as morality play. It’s also a permission slip for skepticism that doesn’t automatically slide into cynicism: you can accept the need for public order while still insisting on limits, transparency, and accountability.

Context matters because Nofziger is best known as a conservative political operative in the Reagan era, a moment when “government” was positioned as the problem even as federal power expanded in defense, policing, and the culture wars. Read there, the quote doubles as strategy: delegitimize the idea of activist government while keeping the machinery available for your priorities. Its bite comes from that tension: government is “evil” right up until you need it.