QuoteProject
Where some people are very wealthy and others have nothing, the result will be either extreme democracy or absolute oligarchy, or despotism will come from either of those excesses.
Aristotle
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Wealth disparity leads to extremes in governance, either of which can lead to tyranny.

Aristotle suggests that in a society where there is a stark contrast between the wealthy and those in poverty, one of two outcomes will emerge: a form of extreme democracy where the poor may overpower the rich, or a shift towards oligarchy or despotism, where power is concentrated in the hands of a few. This quote reflects on the consequences of social and economic inequalities and how they can shape political structures.

Themes

WealthDemocracyOligarchyDespotismEqualityPolitics

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a political debate to discuss the implications of wealth inequality.

More from Aristotle

Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.
AristotleRead
Those who cannot bravely face danger are the slaves of their attackers.
AristotleRead
For often, when one is asleep, there is something in consciousness which declares that what then presents itself is but a dream.
AristotleRead
You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.
AristotleRead
But if nothing but soul, or in soul mind, is qualified to count, it is impossible for there to be time unless there is soul, but only that of which time is an attribute, i.e. if change can exist without soul.
AristotleRead
The whole is more than the sum of its parts.
AristotleRead

Similar quotes

Boredom is just the reverse side of fascination: both depend on being outside rather than inside a situation, and one leads to the other.
Arthur SchopenhauerRead
People starve. The rulers consume too much with their taxes. That is why people starve.
LaoziRead
And I suddenly think, as I look across the table at him, that these are the days as they will be. This is the future as we see it. The swerve and the static. The confidence and the doubt.
Colum MccannRead
The rashness of the persecutor hath overspread the rights of the persecuted so that punishment is awarded to him that has gained the victory, the inglorious triumphs, and the man who deserved bonds has carried off the prize.
Thomas BecketRead
But she knew that no matter what beauty lay behind, it must remain there. No one could go forward with a load of aching memories.
Margaret MitchellRead
Under the strain of this continually impending doom and by the sleeplessness to which I now condemned myself, ay, even beyond what I had thought possible to man, I became, in my own person, a creature eaten up and emptied by fever, languidly weak both in body and mind, and solely occupied by one thought: the horror of my other self.
Robert Louis StevensonRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.

Quote by Aristotle | QuoteProject