Quote#Politics & Power
All modes of government are failures. Despotism is unjust to…
Quote byOscar Wilde · 1854–1900
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891).
English (original)
All modes of government are failures. Despotism is unjust to everybody, including the despot, who was probably made for better things. Oligarchies are unjust to the many, and ochlocracies are unjust to the few. High hopes were once formed of democracy; but democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.
— Oscar Wilde
More from Oscar Wilde
A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.
Be warned in time, James, and remain, as I do, incomprehensible: to be great is to be misunderstood.
And down the long and silent street, The dawn, with silver-sandalled feet, Crept like a frightened girl.
Every great man nowadays has his disciples, and it is always Judas who writes the biography.
Truth, in the matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived.
The honest ratepayer and his healthy family have no doubt often mocked at the dome-like forehead of the philosopher, and laughed over the strange perspective of the landscape that lies beneath him. If they really knew who he was, they …