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History supplies us with examples of almost every possible modification of government.

— William Smith O'Brien Principles of Government: Or Meditations in Exile (1856)

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More quotes by William Smith O'Brien

A people desirous to preserve their freedom cannot be too jealous in watching the encroachment of a centralizing spirit.

Principles of Government: Or Meditations in Exile (1856)

Secret voting tends to check the mercenary traffic which often takes place between the candidate and the elector.

Principles of Government: Or Meditations in Exile (1856)

I believe as firmly as I believe any other historical truth—that no nation ever suffered so much from another nation as the Irish have suffered from the English—or for so long a time.

Peculiarities of national character, traditional ideas, feelings, and habits, as well as local circumstances of various kinds must be taken into account in moulding the political institutions of each country.

Principles of Government: Or Meditations in Exile (1856)

An officer who is liable to be dismissed upon every change of Government naturally feels little interest in performing faithfully the duties of his situation. His thoughts are rather directed to the necessity of making provision for the contingency of a change. If he be corrupt in principle, he is subjected to a temptation which is almost irresistible.

Principles of Government: Or Meditations in Exile (1856)

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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: William Smith O'Brien (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.