Liberty Means Responsibility That Is Why

This aphorism is from the "Liberty and Equality" section of Maxims for Revolutionists, the appendix to Shaw's 1903 play Man and Superman. It encapsulates a recurring Shavian argument: most people prefer the safety of hierarchy and authority precisely because genuine liberty demands full personal accountability — a burden they find heavier than constraint. The Maxims as a whole are a collection of pointed paradoxes designed to satirize conventional morality, and this line sits alongside others such as "Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few."