The idea of the state is, or should be, a very limited, prescribed idea. The state looks after the defense of the realm, and other matters - raising revenue to pay for things which are for all of us, and so on. That idea has turned turtle now. The state isn't any longer perceived as an institution which exists to serve us.

Tom Stoppard

Tom Stoppard

After Any Defense Exists Idea Institution Limited Longer Looks Matters Now Other Pay Perceived Prescribed Raising Realm Revenue Serve Should State Things Turned Turtle Us Very Which

Related Quotes

Love is - OK, it's 20 things, but it isn't 19. And I think that love reaches for something which is very, very deep in us and is very easily obscured, and is also very easily denied, which is the instinct towards the other person, other than toward the self.

— Tom Stoppard

The idea that public safety, the safety of the innocent, is an absolute which trumps every other consideration, is tacitly abandoned in the way we live.

— Tom Stoppard

AbandonedAbsoluteConsideration

The fact is, I loved being English. I was very happy to be turned into an English schoolboy.

— Tom Stoppard

BeingEnglishFact

It is no light matter to put in jeopardy a single life when it is the very singularity of each life which underpins the idea of a just society.

— Tom Stoppard

EachIdeaJeopardy

Any revival in which I am involved is liable to change.

— Tom Stoppard