p. 224
“

To the ignorant and bawling fanatics who stun you with their pother about liberty, political or civil liberty seems to be the principal end for which government ought to exist. But the final cause or purpose for which government ought to exist, is the furtherance of the common weal to the greatest possible extent.

— John Austin (legal philosopher)

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "To the ignorant and bawling fanatics who stun you with their pother about liberty, political or civil liberty seems to be the principal end for which government ought to exist. But the final cause or purpose for which government ought to exist, is the furtherance of the common weal to the greatest possible extent." in the context of "p. 224" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "John Austin (legal philosopher)" (Quotes, The Province of Jurisprudence Determined (1832): John Austin, The Province of Jurisprudence Determined, 1832.) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
John Austin (legal philosopher)

About John Austin (legal philosopher)

John Austin (3 March 1790, Creeting Mill, Suffolk – 1 December 1859, Weybridge, Surrey) was a noted British legal theorist who strongly influenced Anglo-American law by means of his analytical approach to jurisprudence and his theory of legal positivism.