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Ransack the history of revolutions, and it will be found that every fall of a regime has been presaged by a defiance which went unpunished. It is as true today as it was ten thousand years ago that a Power from which the magic virtue has gone out, falls.

— Bertrand de Jouvenel On Power: Its Nature and the History of Its Growth (1949)

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Notes from Wikiquote

Cf. also Mosca's "Political Formula"

More quotes by Bertrand de Jouvenel

A people among whom custom is altogether sovereign endures the despotism of the dead.

On Power: Its Nature and the History of Its Growth (1949)

The leveling process need find no place in Power's programme: it is embedded in its destiny.

On Power: Its Nature and the History of Its Growth (1949)

It is not hard to discover behind this juridical concept a metaphysical one.

On Power: Its Nature and the History of Its Growth (1949)

"Monarchy and feudal aristocracy are two lions born on the same day."

On Power: Its Nature and the History of Its Growth (1949)

Resistance is, therefore, the business of aristocracies.

On Power: Its Nature and the History of Its Growth (1949)

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Attribution

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