A frase da semana: o individuo e o Estado - Herbert Spencer

A frase desta semana não é desta semana, tampouco deste mês, sequer deste ano.
É de 1884, e está no livro The Man versus the State, de Herbert Spencer, o filósofo evolucionista, darwiniano, cientificista, e liberal...

It is not to the State that we owe the multitudinous useful inventions from the spade to the telephone; it is not the State which made possible extended navigation by a developed astronomy; it was not the State which made the discoveries in physics, chemistry, and the rest, which guide modern manufacturers; it was not the State which devised the machinery for producing fabrics of every kind, for transferring men and things from place to place, and for ministering in a thousand ways to our comforts. The worldwide transactions conducted in merchants' offices, the rush of traffic filling our streets, the retail distributing system which brings everything within easy reach and delivers the necessaries of life daily at our doors, are not of governmental origin. All these are results of the spontaneous activities of citizens, separate or grouped.