Quote

To be governed is to be watched over, inspected, spied on, directed, legislated at, regulated, docketed, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, assessed, weighed, censored, ordered about, by men who have neither the right, nor the knowledge, nor the virtue. 

To be governed is to be at every operation, at every transaction, noted, registered, enrolled, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished.

It is, under the pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be placed under contribution, trained, ransomed, exploited, monopolized, extorted, squeezed, mystified, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, despised, harassed, tracked, abused, clubbed, disarmed, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and, to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, outraged, dishonoured.

That is government; that is its justice; that is its morality.

 - Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was a Socialist/Anarchist who lived in the first half of the 1800s. This was back when Socialism was more aptly identified as Collectivism. He would shun the modern, Government focused version of Socialism that is found today. Many believe him to be the first person ever to refer to themselves as an "anarchist".

I disagree with almost everything in his Political and Social Philosophies. He hated capitalism, and only recognized property rights (on a collective level) for laborers and peasants... accumulation of wealth and property was evil in his eyes.

Collectivists/Socialists start out with good intentions, of course. They see the Dictators, Hereditary Monarchies, Robber Baron Capitalists, and even fairly elected Governments to whom people have surrendered too many person liberties as a plague on the land and the people that must be removed.

The problem with their solution is that they replace what they hate with another set of Masters who are usually even worse. It inevitably leads to a ruling class that is so sure of their intellectual and moral superiority, that they can justify ANYTHING they do as "for the good of the people". Oppressions under "People's Republics" have been the most totalitarian and brutal in the history of mankind.

Even a broken clock is right twice a day, however, and his opinion of government as a whole is pretty much dead-on.