The Rights of the Minority
"The greatest good of the greatest number" is often used by good men in an utterly meaningless or pernicious way. It is an end sought, an object aimed at, and in this way it is wholly selfish. There has not been any oppressive system under the sun but that its devotees, if they did not then have the greatest number, hoped sometime to have, and for their own they have sought the greatest good, or rather the greatest gain. The only true purpose in the State is the jealous guarding of the rights of the minority, of the poorest, the weakest. The conservation of the rights of one, means the conservation of the rights of all; and its inevitable fruitage, result, out-working, is the greatest good to the greatest number. But that comes as a result, and not as an object to be sought.