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Quote#Education

Let men learn that a legislature is not “our God upon earth,” though,…

Quote byHerbert Spencer · 1820–1903

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Social Statics (1851), Pt. III, Ch. 19 : The Right to Ignore the State, § 2.

English (original)

Let men learn that a legislature is not “our God upon earth,” though, by the authority they ascribe to it, and the things they expect from it, they would seem to think it is. Let them learn rather that it is an institution serving a purely temporary purpose, whose power, when not stolen, is at the best borrowed.

— Herbert Spencer

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