“He who seeks to regulate everything by law, is more likely to arouse vices than to reform them. It is best to grant what cannot be abolished, even though it be in itself harmful.”

“Qui omnia legibus determinare vult, vitia irritabit potius, quam corriget. Quae prohiberi nequeunt, necessario concedenda sunt, tametsi inde saepe damnum sequatur.”

Benedict de Spinoza, Theological-Political Treatise, chapter XX (1670; translated by R. H. M. Elwes, 1883)

“Qui omnia legibus determinare vult, vitia irritabit potius, quam corriget. Quae prohiberi nequeunt, necessario concedenda sunt, tametsi inde saepe damnum sequatur.”

“He who seeks to regulate everything by law, is more likely to arouse vices than to reform them. It is best to grant what cannot be abolished, even though it be in itself harmful.”

Benedictus de Spinoza, Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, caput XX (1670; ed. C. Gebhardt, III, 243; versio Anglica R. H. M. Elwes, 1883)