Who wrote this? Society can and does execute its own mandate…
Who wrote this? Society can and does execute its own mandates: and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in thing with which it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. Protection, therefore, against the tyranny of the magistrate is not enough: there needs protection also against the tyranny of the prevailing opinion and feeling.