[E]ither ruling is for the benefit of the ruled, or it is not an art. ... [A]ny personal gains which a man obtains from the exercise of political rule are the gains of the profit-maker, not of the politician. If ever there were a community of good men, they would not compete in order to rule, but in order to escape ruling. The best men would only rule when special persuasion had been brought to bear on them--not necessarily the offer of money or honour, but perhaps the dislike of being ruled by someone more incompetent than themselves.
-- Plato: Republic I 31 (Introduction;; D.J. Allen ed. 1940)
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