Lewis H. Lapham Quotes About Democracy

Quotes about: Democracy

• The survival of American democracy depends less on the size of its armies than on the capacity of its individual citizens to rely... on the strength of their own thought.

  Lewis H. Lapham

  Strength, Army, Survival

  Lewis H. Lapham (2004). “Gag Rule: On the Suppression of Dissent and the Stifling of Democracy”, p.1, Penguin

• The gentlemen who wrote the Constitution were as suspicious of efficient government as they were wary of democracy, a "turbulence and a folly" that was associated with the unruly ignorance of an urban mob.

  Lewis H. Lapham

  Ignorance, Government, Gentleman

  Lewis H. Lapham (1997). “Waiting for the Barbarians”, p.73, Verso

• The genius of capitalism consists precisely in its lack of morality. Unless he is rich enough to hire his own choir, a capitalist is a fellow who, by definition, can ill afford to believe in anything other than the doctrine of the bottom line. Deprive a capitalist of his God-given right to lie and cheat and steal, and the poor sap stands a better than even chance of becoming one of the abominable wards of the state from whose grimy fingers the Reagan Administration hopes to snatch the ark of democracy.

  Lewis H. Lapham

  War, Lying, Believe

• Democracy is a difficult art of government, demanding of its citizens high ratios of courage and literacy, and at the moment we lack both the necessary habits of mind and a sphere of common reference.

  Lewis H. Lapham

  Art, Government, Mind

  Lewis H. Lapham (1997). “Waiting for the Barbarians”, p.32, Verso

• Dissent is what rescues democracy from a quiet death behind closed doors.

  Lewis H. Lapham

  Doors, Democracy, Quiet

  Lewis H. Lapham (2004). “Gag Rule: On the Suppression of Dissent and the Stifling of Democracy”, p.162, Penguin

• Democracy is born in dirt, nourished by the digging up and turning over as much of it as can be brought within reach of a television camera or subpoena.

  Lewis H. Lapham

  Democracy, Cameras, Digging

• The practice of our democracy depends on a sense of, and knowledge of, history in the same way that playing in the World Series requires a bat and a ball.

  Lewis H. Lapham

  Practice, Democracy, Bats

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