The 'night-watchman state' defined

“Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism, but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice; all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things. All governments which thwart this natural course, which force things into another channel, or which endeavour to arrest the progress of society at a particular point, are unnatural, and to support themselves are obliged to be oppressive and tyrannical.”

~ Adam Smith, from his 1755 lecture notes in economics, jurisprudence + moral philosophy [hat tip 'A Daily Dose of History']