The idea of government sprang in barbarous times from the authority of the leader in war, and the patriarchal rule of the head of the family; it grew up in the superstition born of the fears of an ignorant age; and on the brute instincts and childishness, the ignorance and fears of mankind it has prospered ever since, until progress began slowly and surely to cut away the ground under its feet.

Liberty! Do you now know what liberty is? You clamor for it. I tell you: Be free, for you are free! No other liberty can come to you except that which you carry within you. You are you, an ego, a will, wholly for yourselves, resting within yourselves; what more do you want? Is that not liberty enough? Of what more, then, do you want to be free?

In these barriers (Freedom of will) there is no compulsion. This I feel only when a foreign force controls me and a foreign will seeks to assert itself through my action. Against this I revolt, and only when the foreign will has become my own by virtue of my insight, only then shall I not submit myself, but still act in liberty. To do good in consequence of free insight is true virtue, and to act independently true egoism.

Slaves and master do not make a society; "free and equal" beings do.

If these propositions are sound, there is no antagonism between social and individual interests. That alone is good for "society" which is good for all its members. To ask any number of individuals to sacrifice themselves for "society"—that is, for the rest of the membership—is to deprive them of every motive for wishing to lead a social life. The individual has no need for society, if it does not tend to increase his happiness.