Full Idea
You ask which form of government is the best? Whichever teaches us to govern ourselves.
Gist of Idea
The best form of government teaches us to govern ourselves
Source
Wolfgang von Goethe (Maxims and Reflections [1825], 353)
Book Reference
Goethe,J. Wolfgang: 'Maxims and Reflections' [Penguin 1840], p.42
A Reaction
Not a fashionable view, since the rise of freedom as the highest political ideal, but I identify with the idea that a good government should educate, and should try to facilitate virtue as well as pleasure.