Quote#Wisdom
I believe...all the enduring institutions which human societies have…
Quote byRobert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury · 1830–1903
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Minute (20 April 1875), quoted in E. D. Steele, 'Salisbury at the India Office', in Lord Blake and Hugh Cecil (eds.), Salisbury: The Man and his Policies (1987), p. 141.
English (original)
I believe...all the enduring institutions which human societies have attained have been reached, not of the set design and forethought of some group of statesmen, but by that unbidden and unconscious convergence of many thoughts and wills in successive generations to which, as it obeys no single guiding hand, we may give the name of "drifting".
— Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
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