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The government will take the fairest of names, but the worst of realities—mob rule.

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Government

More quotes by Polybius

All things are subject to decay and change.

There is no witness so dreadful, no accuser so terrible as the conscience that dwells in the heart of every man.

Those who know how to win are much more numerous than those who know how to make proper use of their victories.

In all human affairs, and especially in those that relate to war, ... leave always some room to fortune, and to accidents which cannot be foreseen.

This is a sworn treaty made between us, Hannibal … and Xenophanes the Athenian ... in the presence of all the gods who possess Macedonia and the rest of Greece.

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Ill can he rule the great, that cannot reach the small.

Edmund Spenser The Faerie Queene (1589)

The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.

James Madison

Bureaucracy and social harmony are inversely proportional to each other.

Leon Trotsky The Revolution Betrayed (1936)

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.

John Adams

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Polybius (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.