I heartily accept the motto, "That government is best which governs least"; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically.

Is a democracy, such as we know it, the last improvement possible in government? Is it not possible to take a step further towards recognizing and organizing the rights of man?

There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly.

— Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience (1849)