Quotes Library

October 31, 2025

The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern.

Lord Acton (1834–1902), English historian, Letter to Mary Gladstone, in The Cynic’s Lexicon, Jonathon Green, ed. (London: 1986), p.1

From what class do you derive? What is the particular unfitness of your class? How can you make up for that lack?

Of course, every class alone is unfit to govern, but that’s why we need all classes in government.


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