“The best party is but a kind of conspiracy against the Commonwealth.”

—  Ronald Syme , book The Roman Revolution

Source: The Roman Revolution (1939), Ch. 9.

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 "The best party is but a kind of conspiracy against the Commonwealth." by Ronald Syme?
Ronald Syme photo
Ronald Syme 7
New Zealand-born historian and classicist 1903–1989

Related quotes

George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax photo

“The best Party is but a kind of Conspiracy against the rest of the Nation. They put every body else out of their Protection. Like the Jews to the Gentiles, all others are the Offscowrings of the World.”

George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax (1633–1695) English politician

Of Parties.
Political, Moral, and Miscellaneous Reflections (1750), Political Thoughts and Reflections

Muammar Gaddafi photo

“I won't be a party to a conspiracy to mobilize the Arabs against the Persians. Only the forces of colonialism benefit from such a conspiracy. I won't be a party to a conspiracy that splits Islam into two - Shiite Islam and Sunni Islam – mobilizing Sunni Islam against Shiite Islam.”

Muammar Gaddafi (1942–2011) Libyan revolutionary, politician and political theorist

Interview with Al Jazeera (27 March 2007)
Interviews

George William Curtis photo

“The country was divided between the Whig and Democratic organizations. The Democratic Party then, as now, was in open alliance with slavery, in a conspiracy against the Constitution and the peace of the country.”

George William Curtis (1824–1892) American writer

1850s, The Present Aspect of the Slavery Question (1859)
Context: The country was divided between the Whig and Democratic organizations. The Democratic Party then, as now, was in open alliance with slavery, in a conspiracy against the Constitution and the peace of the country. Of that there was no hope; and when the Whig party at Baltimore with fabulous fatuity dodged the question, the great Whig party, newly painted and repaired, with all its guns burnished, its drums beating and colors flying, went down in a moment clean out of sight, like the Royal George at Spithead, and of all that stately craft there remain but a few ancient mariners drifting half-drowned in the water, and sputtering with winking eyes that the ship had better try another voyage.

George Bernard Shaw photo

“All professions are conspiracies against the laity.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Act I
1910s, The Doctor's Dilemma (1911)

William Ewart Gladstone photo

“This Coercion Act professes to be in the main an Act directed against conspiracy, and conspiracy is a bad thing. But under the name of conspiracy we say that it is directed against combination. Combination is not always a very good thing, but combination is very often the sole means by which the weak can protect themselves against the strong, the poor against the wealthy.”

William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898) British Liberal politician and prime minister of the United Kingdom

Speech in London (30 June 1888), quoted in The Times (2 July 1888), p. 7.
1880s

Zelda Fitzgerald photo

“The night you gave me my birthday party… you were a young Lieutenant and I was a fragrant phantom, wasn't I? And it was a radiant night, a night of soft conspiracy and the trees agreed that it was all going to be for the best.”

Zelda Fitzgerald (1900–1948) Novelist, wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald
John Derbyshire photo

“American society is increasingly a conspiracy of the smart against the dumb.”

John Derbyshire (1945) writer

Derb Quotes https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/derb-quotes-john-derbyshire/, National Review, November 20, 2003.

P. J. O'Rourke photo

“The forces of safety are afoot in the land. I, for one, believe it is a conspiracy— a conspiracy of Safety Nazis shouting "Sieg Health" and seeking to trammel freedom, liberty, and large noisy parties. The Safety Nazis advocate gun control, vigorous exercise, and health foods. The result can only be a disarmed, exhausted, and half-starved population ready to acquiesce to dictatorship of some kind.”

P. J. O'Rourke book Republican Party Reptile

Republican Party Reptile (1987)

Murray Leinster photo

“Hoddan angrily suspected fate and chance of plain conspiracy against him.”

Murray Leinster book The Pirates of Zan

Source: The Pirates of Zan (1959), Chapter 4

Ralph Waldo Emerson photo

“Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), Self-Reliance
Context: Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.

Related topics