Quote by Lord Acton

The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern: every class is unfit to govern.


The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern

Summary

This quote highlights the inherent flaw in the concept of any single class being fit to govern. It suggests that no class, regardless of their status or expertise, is inherently suitable for governing. It challenges the notion of class-based superiority and power, emphasizing that governance requires a diverse range of perspectives and skills. By asserting the unsuitability of any class to govern, the quote prompts the consideration of more inclusive and diverse forms of governance that involve participation and representation from different societal groups.

By Lord Acton
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Random Quotations

Suppose that a man leaps out of a burning building as my dear friend and colleague Jeff Goldberg sat and said to my face over a table at La Tomate in Washington not two years ago and lands on a bystander in the street below. Now, make the burning building be Europe, and the luckless man underneath be the Palestinian Arabs. Is this a historical injustice? Has the man below been made a victim, with infinite cause of complaint and indefinite justification for violent retaliation? My own reply would be a provisional 'no,' but only on these conditions. The man leaping from the burning building must still make such restitution as he can to the man who broke his fall, and must not pretend that he never even landed on him. And he must base his case on the singularity and uniqueness of the original leap. It can't, in other words, be 'leap, leap, leap' for four generations and more. The people underneath cannot be expected to tolerate leaping on this scale and of this duration, if you catch my drift. In Palestine, tread softly, for you tread on their dreams. And do tell the Palestinians that they were never fallen upon and bruised in the first place. Do not shame yourself with the cheap lie that they were told by their leaders to run away. Also, stop saying that nobody knew how to cultivate oranges in Jaffa until the Jews showed them how. 'Making the desert bloom' one of Yvonne's stock phrases makes desert dwellers out of people who were the agricultural superiors of the Crusaders.

Christopher Hitchens