Democracy Quotes

"Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."
- John Adams (1735-1826)

"A democratic despotism is like a theocracy: it assumes its own correctness."
- Walter Bagehot (1826-1877)

"Thought that is silenced is always rebellious. Majorities, of course, are often mistaken.
This is why the silencing of minorities is necessarily dangerous. Criticism and dissent are the indispensable antidote to major delusions."
- Alan Barth, The Loyalty of Free Men, 1951

"Civilization exists precisely so that there may be no masses but rather men alert enough never to constitute masses."
- Georges Bernanos

"Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles."
- Ambrose Bierce (1842 - 1914)

"Vote: The instrument and symbol of a free man's power to make a fool of himself and a wreck of his country."
- Ambrose Bierce (1842 - 1914)

"An election is nothing more than the advanced auction of stolen goods."
- Ambrose Bierce (1842 - 1914)

"Anybody that wants the Presidency so much that he'll spend two years organizing and campaigning for it is not to be trusted with the office."
- David Broder

We are so concerned to flatter the majority that we lose sight of how very often it is necessary, in order to preserve freedom for the minority, let alone for the individual, to face that majority down.
- William F. Buckley, Jr.,
The Jeweler's Eye, 1968