Philip K. Howard

“Plato argued that good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will always find a…

— Philip K. Howard

“Uniformity in the common law, consisting of broad principles like the "reasonable person" standard, generally permits adjustment for the circumstances. This type…

— Philip K. Howard

We should stop looking to law to provide the final answer.... Law cannot save us from ourselves.... We have to go out…

— Philip K. Howard

Human nature turns out to be more complicated than the idea that people will get along if only the rules are clear…

— Philip K. Howard

“Overthrow the bureaucracy, and return to a system based on human responsibility.”

— Philip K. Howard

“By exiling human judgment in the last few decades, modern law changed role from useful tool to brainless tyrant. This legal regime…

— Philip K. Howard

“In 2010, 70 percent of federal tax revenue was consumed by three entitlement programs (Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security)”

— Philip K. Howard

Coercion by government, the main fear of our founding fathers, is now its most common attribute.

— Philip K. Howard

“We must abandon our belief that human choice denigrates the Rule of Law.”

— Philip K. Howard

“Automatic law corrodes our freedom”

— Philip K. Howard

We've been trained to squint into a legal microscope, hoping that we can judge any dispute against the standard of a perfect…

— Philip K. Howard

Rights are not the language of democracy. Compromise is what democracy is about. Rights are the language of freedom, and are absolute…

— Philip K. Howard

“Mindless rules, not accountable officials, are the enemy of freedom.”

— Philip K. Howard

“The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas,” John Maynard Keynes famously observed, “but in escaping from the old ones.”

— Philip K. Howard