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Quote#Hope

It is the universal hope of rising in the social scale which is the…

Quote byRichard Cobden · 1804–1865

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Letter to John Bright during his visit to the United States (1858), quoted in John Morley, The Life of Richard Cobden [1879] (1905), p. 688.

English (original)

It is the universal hope of rising in the social scale which is the key to much of the superiority that is visible in this country. It accounts for the orderly self-respect which is the great characteristic of the masses in the United States. ... All this tends to the argument that the political condition of a people is very much dependent on its economical fate.

— Richard Cobden

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