“No good government can ever want more than two things for its support: 1st, Its own excellence; and, 2dly, a people sufficiently instructed, to be aware of that excellence. Every other pretended support, must ultimately tend to its subversion, by lessening its dependence upon these.”

—  James Mill

The Edinburgh Review, vol. 21 (1813), pp. 217-18

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "No good government can ever want more than two things for its support: 1st, Its own excellence; and, 2dly, a people suf…" by James Mill?
James Mill photo
James Mill 12
Scottish historian, economist, political theorist and philo… 1773–1836

Related quotes

John Keats photo

“The excellence of every Art is its intensity.”

John Keats (1795–1821) English Romantic poet

Source: Complete Poems and Selected Letters

Noam Chomsky photo
Otto von Bismarck photo

“Every state must be aware that its peace, its security rests on its own sword.”

Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898) German statesman, Chancellor of Germany

All the King's Men' A search for the colonial ideas of some advisers and "accomplices" of Leopold II (1853-1892). (Hannes Vanhauwaert), 5. A prospectus by the military Chazal and Brialmont, The military centipede Henri-Alexis Brialmont (1821-1893) http://www.ethesis.net/leopold_II/leopold_II.htm#2.%20 CROKAERT, P. Brialmont, 183.
Undated

“A just system must generate its own support.”

Source: A Theory of Justice (1971; 1975; 1999), Chapter V, Section 41, p. 261

J. R. D. Tata photo

“If you want excellence, you must aim at perfection. It has its drawbacks but being finicky is essential.”

J. R. D. Tata (1904–1993) Indian businessman

Quotations by 60 Greatest Indians, Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology http://resourcecentre.daiict.ac.in/eresources/iresources/quotations.html,

“Ultimately, each transnational firm strives for its own advantage, and is supported in that effort by the state power wherein it resides, or at least where its main shareholders are domiciled.”

Herbert Schiller (1919–2000) American media critic

Source: Living In The Number One Country (2000), Chapter Two, Visions Of Global Electronic Mastery, p. 78

Stafford Cripps photo

“The workers must now make it clear beyond all doubt that they will not support the Government or its armaments in its mad policy which it is now pursuing.”

Stafford Cripps (1889–1952) British politician

Speech on 23 May, 1938, quoted in Talus, Your Alternative Government (London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1945), p. 45.

Grover Cleveland photo

Related topics