No Government can be long secure without a formidable Opposition. It reduces their supporters to that tractable number which can be managed by the joint influences of fruition and hope. It offers vengeance to the discontented, and distinction to the ambitious; and employs the energies of aspiring spirits, who otherwise may prove traitors in a division or assassins in a debate.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- A strong opposition keeps a government secure by channeling ambition into debate rather than violence.
- In plain terms
- Opposition helps keep a government stable.
- What can you take from it?
- Allow criticism to maintain order.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Is opposition always healthy?
Another view
Opposition can sometimes paralyze progress.
More from Benjamin Disraeli
When men are pure, laws are useless; when men are corrupt, laws are broken.
Permalink to quote #112 A government of statesmen or of clerks? Of Humbug or Humdrum?
Permalink to quote #114 All is mystery; but he is a slave who will not struggle to penetrate the dark veil.
Permalink to quote #111
Related quotes
Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness.
George WashingtonGeorge Washington quote #1 During the last 100 years, the House of Lords has never contributed one iota to popular liberties or popular freedom, or done anything to advance the common we…
Joseph ChamberlainJoseph Chamberlain quote #1 Nor is it any longer possible for you to give up this empire ... Your empire is now like a tyranny: it may have been wrong to take it; it is certainly dangerou…
PericlesPericles quote #1