Every stupid, every cowardly and foolish man is but a less palpable madman
 Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present (1843). copy citation

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Author Thomas Carlyle
Source Past and Present
Topic
Date 1843
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/13534/pg13534-images.html

Context

“if liberty be not that, I for one have small care about liberty. You do not allow a palpable madman to leap over precipices; you violate his liberty, you that are wise; and keep him, were it in strait-waistcoats, away from the precipices! Every stupid, every cowardly and foolish man is but a less palpable madman: his true liberty were that a wiser man, that any and every wiser man, could, by brass collars, or in whatever milder or sharper way, lay hold of him when he was going wrong, and order and compel him to go a little righter.” source