Democracies Have Quotes - Page 4

• As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Wisdom, Freedom, Humor

  "Definition of Democracy," ca. 1 Aug. 1858

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• Democracy gives every man the right to be his own oppressor.

  James Russell Lowell

  Freedom, Men, Giving

  The Biglow Papers, Second Series, "Ef I a song or two could make" l. 97 (1867)

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  If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.

  James Madison

  Inspirational, Freedom, Fear

  "The Last Enemy" by Rebecca Sato, www.pbs.org. November 11, 2010.

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• Of the people, by the people, for the people.

  Sun Yat-sen

  4th Of July, Patriotic, People

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  The ballot is stronger than the bullet.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Freedom, Presidential, Political

  Speech, 19 May 1856

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• The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Freedom, War, Patriotic

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence 1786-1787”, p.263, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Success, Education, Real

  Roosevelt, Franklin D. (1941). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: F.D. Roosevelt, 1938, Volume 7”, p.538, Best Books on

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• The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders...tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger.

  Hermann Goring

  Country, Peace, Freedom

  Quoted in Gustave M. Gilbert, Nuremberg Diary (1947).

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• The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppose.

  Frederick Douglass

  Freedom, Tyrants, Liberty

  Frederick Douglass, Philip Sheldon Foner, Yuval Taylor (1999). “Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings”, p.367, Chicago Review Press

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• No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

  James Madison

  Freedom, War, Political

  James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing

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• There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."

  Isaac Asimov

  Ignorance, Mean, Political Will

  "A Cult of Ignorance". Newsweek, January 21, 1980.

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• Democracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they are the powers that ought to be.

  Sydney J. Harris

  Witty, Political, Voting

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• Bad officials are the ones elected by good citizens who do not vote.

  George Jean Nathan

  Freedom, Political, Voting

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• When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic.

  Donald James

  Truth, Lying, Libertarian Party

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• It has been observed that a pure democracy if it were practicable would be the most perfect government. Experience has proved that no position is more false than this. The ancient democracies in which the people themselves deliberated never possessed one good feature of government. Their very character was tyranny; their figure deformity.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Character, Government, People

  Alexander Hamilton (1850). “The works of Alexander Hamilton; compris. his corresp. and his polit. and official writings, excl. of the federalist, civil and military. Ed. by John C. Hamilton”, p.440

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• Between a balanced republic and a democracy, the difference is like that between order and chaos.

  John Marshall

  Differences, Order, Historical

  John Marshall (1836). “The life of George Washington: commander in chief of the American forces, during the war which established the independence of his country, and first president of the United States”, p.447

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• Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those others that have been

  Winston Churchill

  Wise, Time, Freedom

  Speech in House of Commons, 11 Nov. 1947

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• It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority.

  Lord Acton

  Freedom, Equality, Democracy

  Lord Acton (2016). “The History of Freedom: Great Event”, p.9, VM eBooks

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• Democracy is four wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Gun, Lunch, Voting

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• I have long been convinced that institutions purely democratic must, sooner or later, destroy liberty or civilization, or both.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Freedom, Civilization, Long

  Letter to Henry Stephens Randall, May 23, 1857.

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• Democracies have been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their death.

  James Madison

  Freedom, Rights, Majority Rule

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1842). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.46

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• A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until a majority of voters discover that they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury.

  Alexander Fraser Tytler

  Freedom, Government, Majority Vote

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• On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

  H. L. Mencken

  Funny, Heart, Land

  The Baltimore Sun, July 26, 1920.

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• Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.

  H. L. Mencken

  Freedom, People, Democracy

  A Little Book in C Major ch. 2 (1916)

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• Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.

  H. L. Mencken

  Running, Art, Majority Rule

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.622, Vintage

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