“To be free is to be able to do everything that does not harm another.”Voltaire · Dicționar filozofic · 1764 · articolul „Liberté
Limits don't shrink freedom, they make it possible: where harm to another begins, mine ends.
The formula condenses the Enlightenment principle of civil liberty: the boundary of my action is another person's right to exist undisturbed. The mechanism is simple — if everyone may do whatever harms no one, conflict disappears and freedom becomes compatible with social order. For example, I may speak freely, but not lie under oath, because a lie harms someone. Limits do not reduce freedom; they make it possible.
Voltaire gives us a test, not just a rule. Before demanding that something be banned, we can ask a simple question: who exactly is being harmed? If no one can point to a real injury, the ban protects no one's freedom, only someone's taste. This explains why loud noise at night can be limited, but how you decorate your apartment cannot. Noise passes through the wall and steals your sleep; the color of your walls stays inside your home. The test also cuts the other way: whoever asks for a rule must name the victim. But what happens when two neighbors accuse each other of being harmed by the very same thing?
Why it matters It helps in debates about shared rules, from free speech to neighborhood rules, as a quick test: who is actually being harmed?