Majority Rule Quotes

• All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Freedom, Patriotic, Equality

  First Inaugural Address, 4 Mar. 1801

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• Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

  Mark Twain

  Inspirational, Motivational, Change

  Mark Twain (2016). “The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain”, p.97, Chartwell

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• You can't have five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for dinner.

  Larry Flynt

  Niece, Sheep, Majority Vote

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• Though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Tyranny Of The Majority, Minorities, Civil Rights

  First Inaugural Address, 4 Mar. 1801

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• the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Rights, Law, Would Be

  First Inaugural Address, 4 Mar. 1801

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• ...but before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself.

  Harper Lee

  Integrity, Tkam, Killing Others

  Christopher Sergel, Harper Lee (1995). “The Play of To Kill a Mockingbird”, p.20, Heinemann

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• Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.

  H. L. Mencken

  Freedom, Ignorance, Democracies Have

  "Notes On Journalism". Chicago Tribune, September 19, 1926.

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• The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority.

  Lord Acton

  Democracies Have, Evil, Democracy

  John Emerich Edward Dalberg, Lord Acton (2016). “The History of Freedom (and other Essays)”, p.103, Jazzybee Verlag

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• One of the benefits of a properly functioning democracy is minority rights and majority rule.

  Noam Chomsky

  Rights, Democracy, Minorities

  Interview with Jegan Vincent de Paul, chomsky.info. August 15, 2012.

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• Majority rule only works if you're also considering individual rights. Because you can't have five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for supper.

  Larry Flynt

  Sheep, Rights, Government

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Democracy has turned out to be not majority rule but rule by well-organized and well-connected minority groups who steal from the majority.

  Llewellyn Rockwell

  Democracies Have, Democracy, Groups

  "Why Hate Monarchs?". mises.org. August 2001.

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• The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.

  Harper Lee

  Honesty, Powerful, Integrity

  To Kill a Mockingbird ch. 11 (1960)

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• After all, the practical reason why, when the power is once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted, and for a long period continue, to rule is not because they are most likely to be in the right, nor because this seems fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest. But a government in which the majority rule in all cases cannot be based on justice, even as far as men understand it.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Hands, Long

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.286, Simon and Schuster

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• Majorities can be wrong, majorities can overrule rights of minorities. If majorities ruled, we could still have slavery. 80% of the population once enslaved 20% of the population. While run by majority rule that is ok. That is very flawed notion of what democracy is. Democracy has to take into account several things - proportionate requirements of people, not just needs of the majority, but also needs of the minority. Majority, especially in societies where the media manipulates public opinion, can be totally wrong and evil. People have to act according to conscience and not by majority vote.

  Howard Zinn

  Running, Democracies Have, Rights

  "Rebels Against Tyranny". Interview with Ziga Vodovnik, www.counterpunch.org. May 12, 2008.

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• The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections.

  Lord Acton

  Party, Democracies Have, Hype

  John Emerich Edward Dalberg, Lord Acton (2016). “The History of Freedom (and other Essays)”, p.103, Jazzybee Verlag

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

  H. L. Mencken

  Running, Art, Democracies Have

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

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• The rights to life, liberty and property were not meant to be subject to the vagaries of majority rule.

  Ilana Mercer

  Rights, Liberty, Were Not Meant To Be

  "Life, Liberty and Property". www.wnd.com. May 15, 2009.

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• When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong.

  Eugene V. Debs

  Freedom, Democracies Have, Democracy

  Speech at trial, Cleveland, Ohio, 12 Sept. 1918 See Ibsen 16; Sydney Smith 14

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• It is unnatural for a majority to rule, for a majority can seldom be organized and united for specific action, and a minority can.

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Political, Minorities, Politics

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• Democracy, or "majority rules," is another trick of our society to force us to do things we don't want to do. Even if we actually lived in a pure democracy (and the system we do live in is not even close), where everyone got a single vote on every subject, forcing the minority to obey the majority is no different to one man, if he had the power, forcing everyone else to do what he wanted them to-simply because he could.

  William J. Murray

  Men, Democracy, Want

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• Now majority rule is a precious, sacred thing worth dying for. But like other precious, sacred things .... it's not only worth dying for; it can make you wish you were dead. Imagine if all life were determined by majority rule. Every meal would be a pizza.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Cynical, Democracy, Wish

  P.J. O'Rourke (2015). “Thrown Under the Omnibus”, p.207, Atlantic Books Ltd

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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, Democracies Have, Rights

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

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• "All government in essence," says Emerson, "is tyranny." It matters not whether it is government by divine right or majority rule. In every instance its aim is the absolute subordination of the individual.

  Emma Goldman

  Government, Essence, Divine Right

  Emma Goldman (2015). “Anarchism: Top Crime Collections”, p.31, 谷月社

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• Democracy, in any rational form, also imposes conditions on majority rule. That's what the Bill of Rights is about, for example.

  Noam Chomsky

  Rights, Democracy, Example

  Source: thefifthcolumnnews.com

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• It's precisely because America is not a democracy that we have survived! It's precisely because majority rule does have checks and balances on it. It's precisely because this is a representative republic that we have survived.

  Rush Limbaugh

  America, Democracy, Balance

  Source: www.rushlimbaugh.com

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