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The rich, the well-born, and the able, acquire an influence among the…

Quote byJohn Adams · 1735–1826

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: A Defence of the Constitutions of Government (1787), Vol. I, Preface, p. xi.

English (original)

The rich, the well-born, and the able, acquire an influence among the people that will soon be too much for simple honesty and plain sense, in a house of representatives. The most illustrious of them must, therefore, be separated from the mass, and placed by themselves in a senate; this is, to all honest and useful intents, an ostracism.

— John Adams

1280

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