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Given the general inclination of man to abuse power, all government is evil and all authority means tyranny.

— Manuel González Prada Anarquía (1936)

Dada la inclinación general de los hombres al abuso del poder, todo gobierno es malo y toda autoridad quiere decir tiranía

Original text (Spanish)

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Government

More quotes by Manuel González Prada

Science has immortal flowers from where bees can extract honey of poetry.

Speech at the Exhibition Palace (1887)

If there is pleasure in conquest with the sword, it is no less sweet illuminating with the torch. Glory for glory, it is better to leave sparks of light than trails of blood.

Conference at the Lima Athenaeum (1886)

Do not argue with insurmountable obstacles: the man of solid talent, like a well-bred Cesar, crosses the Rubicon.

Conference at the Lima Athenaeum (1886)

Man walks with small steps in infancy and in old age.

Conference at the Lima Athenaeum (1886)

If the nations of Europe appear like large pachyderms of the intellectual kingdom, let us not represent in Peru the microbes of literature.

Conference at the Lima Athenaeum (1886)

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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

Attribution

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