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I half wrote a discourse on modern democracy, how the rule of numbers…

Quote byJohn Morley · 1838–1923

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: 'Aphorisms', an address delivered before the Edinburgh Philosophical Institutions (11 November 1887), quoted in John Morley, Studies in Literature (1901), p. 54.

English (original)

I half wrote a discourse on modern democracy, how the rule of numbers is to be reconciled with the rule of sage judgment, and the passion for liberty and equality is to be reconciled with sovereign regard for law, authority, and order; and how our hopes for the future are to be linked to wise reverence for tradition and the past.

— John Morley

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