It is a strange fact that freedom and equality, the two basic ideas of democracy, are to some extent contradictory. Logically considered, freedom and equality are mutually exclusive, just as society and the individual are mutually exclusive.
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955) German Novelist, Critic, Philanthropist, Essayist
Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep him in prison because he is unpopular. This is really the test of civilization.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong.
—Eugene V. Debs (1855–1926) American Labor Leader, Socialist
Democracy is a process by which the people are free to choose the man who will get the blame.
—Laurence J. Peter (1919–90) Canadian-Born American Author
We cannot possibly reconcile the principle of democracy, which means co-operation, with the principle of governmental omniscience under which everyone waits for an order before doing anything. That way lies loss of freedom, and dictatorship.
—Lewis H. Brown (1894–1951) American Businessperson
In a democracy the majority of citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority…and that oppression of the majority will extend to far great number, and will be carried on with much greater fury, than can almost ever be apprehended from the dominion of a single sceptre. Under a cruel prince they have the plaudits of the people to animate their generous constancy under their sufferings; but those who are subjected to wrong under multitudes are deprived of all external consolation: they seem deserted by mankind, overpowered by a conspiracy of their whole species.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
Democracy is the wholesome and pure air without which a socialist public organization cannot live a full-blooded life.
—Mikhail Gorbachev (1931–2022) Soviet Head of State
As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.
—Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) American Christian Theologian
It is a besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law. This is the usual form in which masses of men exhibit their tyranny.
—James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851) American Novelist
It is the most beautiful truth in morals that we have no such thing as a distinct or divided interest from our race.—In their welfare is ours; and by choosing the broadest paths to effect their happiness, we choose the surest and shortest to our own.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
I swear to the Lord
I still can’t see
Why Democracy means
Everybody but me.
—Langston Hughes (1902–67) American Poet, Fiction Writer, Dramatist
A modern democracy is a tyranny whose borders are undefined; one discovers how far one can go only by traveling in a straight line until one is stopped.
—Norman Mailer (1923–2007) American Novelist Essayist
I cannot too often repeat that Democracy is a word the real gist of which still sleeps, quite unawakened, notwithstanding the resonance and the many angry tempests out of which its syllables have come, from pen or tongue. It is a great word, whose history, I suppose, remains unwritten because that history has yet to be enacted.
—Walt Whitman (1819–92) American Poet, Essayist, Journalist
The best defense against usurpatory government is an assertive citizenry.
—William F. Buckley, Jr. (1925–2008) American Conservative Writer, Commentator
That a peasant may become king does not render the kingdom democratic.
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American Head of State
Democracy is not the law of the majority but protection of the minority.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Novelist
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Democracy is eternal and human. It dignifies the human being; it respects humanity.
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955) German Novelist, Critic, Philanthropist, Essayist
Let the people think they govern and they will be governed.
—William Penn (1644–1718) American Entrepreneur, Philosopher, Political Leader
When people put their ballots in the boxes, they are, by that act, inoculated against the feeling that the government is not theirs. They then accept, in some measure, that its errors are their errors, its aberrations their aberrations, that any revolt will be against them. It’s a remarkably shrewd and rather conservative arrangement when one thinks of it.
—John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) Canadian-Born American Economist
The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
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 (1917–86) American Essayist, Drama Critic
Every thing that is right or natural pleads for separation. The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, “’tis time to part.”
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809) American Nationalist, Author, Pamphleteer, Inventor
The majority is never right. Never, I tell you! That’s one of these lies in society that no free and intelligent man can help rebelling against. Who are the people that make up the biggest proportion of the population—the intelligent ones or the fools? I think we can agree it’s the fools, no matter where you go in this world, it’s the fools that form the overwhelming majority.
—Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) Norwegian Playwright
Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
Everybody’s for democracy in principle. It’s only in practice that the thing gives rise to stiff objections.
—Meg Greenfield (1930–99) American Editor, Journalist, Socialite
Democracy is the menopause of Western society, the Grand Climacteric of the body social. Fascism is its middle-aged lust.
—Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) French Sociologist, Philosopher
A perfect democracy is therefore the most shameless thing in the world.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
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