Where some people are very wealthy and others have nothing, the result will be either… — Aristotle

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.

In the original Greek

ὡς ὅπου οἱ μὲν πολλὰ σφόδρα κέκτηνται οἱ δὲ μηθέν, ἢ δῆμος ἔσχατος γίγνεται ἢ ὀλιγαρχία ἄκρατος, ἢ τυραννὶς δι᾽ ἀμφοτέρας τὰς ὑπερβολάς:

Politics · 350 BC
★ 7.2
Provenance
Current citation
Aristotle. Politics, translated by R. F. Stalley and Sir Ernest Barker. Oxford University Press, 2009, bk. 4.
Original citation
Aristotle. Politics. 4th century BC, bk. 4.