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Quote#Politics & Power

We need not suppose that when power resides in an exclusive class,…

Quote byJohn Stuart Mill · 1806–1873

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: On Representative Government (1861), Ch. III: The Ideally Best Polity.

English (original)

We need not suppose that when power resides in an exclusive class, that class will knowingly and deliberately sacrifice the other classes to themselves: it suffices that, in the absence of its natural defenders, the interest of the excluded is always in danger of being overlooked: and, when looked at, is seen with very different eyes from those of the persons whom it directly concerns.

— John Stuart Mill

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