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Quote#Politics & Power

[E]lections to the supreme power having upon some occasions produced…

Quote byWilliam Paley · 1743–1805

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy (1785), Vol. II, Book VI, Ch. I.

English (original)

[E]lections to the supreme power having upon some occasions produced the most destructive contentions, many states would take refuge from a return of the same calamities, in a rule of succession; and no rule presents itself so obvious, certain, and intelligible, as consanguinity of birth.

— William Paley

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