Quote#Politics & Power
What constitutes a state?
Quote byWilliam Jones · 1746–1794
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: "An Ode in Imitation of Alcæus" (31 March 1781), in The Annual Register...for 1781 (London: J. Dodsley, 1782) p. 183. Reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Compare: "Neither walls, theatres, porches, nor senseless equipage, make states, but men who are able to rely upon themse.
English (original)
What constitutes a state? Men who their duties know, But know their rights, and knowing, dare maintain. And sovereign law, that state's collected will, O'er thrones and globes elate, Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill.
— William Jones
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Plato drew many of his notions (through Egypt, where he resided for some time) from the sages of Hindustán.