Pride is founded not on the sense of happiness, but on the sense of power.
William HazlittRead
Wherever the Government does not emanate...from the people, the principle of the Government, the esprit de corps, the point of honour, in all those connected with it, and raised by it to privileges above the law and above humanity, will be hatred to the people.
Interpretation
What this quote means
When government is disconnected from the people, it breeds resentment and a sense of injustice.
William Hazlitt's quote emphasizes that when a government operates without the will or representation of its citizens, it loses its moral authority and becomes a source of division. The privileges and power it bestows upon certain individuals create a rift between the rulers and the ruled, inciting hatred and discontent among the populace.
Themes
GovernmentPeoplePoliticsAuthorityPrivilegesHatred
In practice
Example use cases
During a political speech to emphasize the importance of civic engagement.
More from William Hazlitt
All quotes →The world loves to be amused by hollow professions, to be deceived by flattering appearances, to live in a state of hallucination; and can forgive everything but the plain, downright, simple, honest truth.
William HazlittRead
Our repugnance to death increases in proportion to our consciousness of having lived in vain.
William HazlittRead
We can bear to be deprived of everything but our self-conceit.
William HazlittRead
There are few things in which we deceive ourselves more than in the esteem we profess to entertain for our firends. It is little better than a piece of quackery. The truth is, we think of them as we please, that is, as they please or displease us.
William HazlittRead
Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity is a greater. Possession pampers the mind; privation trains and strengthens it.
William HazlittRead
Similar quotes
The two most important things that can be done to promote democracy in the world is first, to bring moral clarity back to world affairs and second, to link international policies to the advance of democracy around the globe.
Natan SharanskyRead
Powerful government tends to draw into it people with bloated egos, people who think they know more than everyone else and have little hesitance in coercing their fellow man. Or as Nobel Laureate Friedrich Hayek said, "in government, the scum rises to the top".
Walter E. WilliamsRead
Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.
E. B. WhiteRead
If a politician found he had cannibals among his constituents, he would promise them missionaries for dinner.
H. L. MenckenRead
The bitter hatreds that now poison Middle Eastern politics are rooted in the real or perceived wrong of the setting up of a Jewish State in an Islamic region. In view of all that the Jews had been through, it must have seemed a fair and humane solution. Probably deep familiarity with the Old Testament had given the European and American decision-makers some sort of idea that this really was the historic homeland of the Jews.
Richard DawkinsRead
Every vote counts and every vote must be counted
Barbara MikulskiRead