Full Idea
The state is essentially no more than an institution for the protection of the whole against attacks from without, and the protection of its individual members from attacks by one another.
Gist of Idea
The state only exists to defend citizens, from exterior threats, and from one another
Source
Arthur Schopenhauer (Parerga and Paralipomena [1851], IX:123)
Book Reference
Schopenhauer,Arthur: 'Essays and Aphorisms [from Pand P]', ed/tr. Hollingdale,R.J. [Penguin 1970], p.149
A Reaction
He then has a swipe at Hegel for his inflated idea of the importance of the state. Schopenhauer is close to Hobbes on this one.