Skip to content
Shawords

Quote#Politics & Power

I have sometimes thought that a squire and a vestry were a king and…

Quote byHorace Walpole · 1717–1797

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Walpoliana, 'King and Republic', p. 74.

English (original)

I have sometimes thought that a squire and a vestry were a king and republic in miniature. The vestry is as tyrannic, in its way, as the squire in his. Any power necessarily leads to abuses of that power. It is difficult to stop any impetus of nature.

— Horace Walpole

More from Horace Walpole