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 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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  The ballot is stronger than the bullet.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Freedom, Presidential, Political

  Speech, 19 May 1856

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

  George Jean Nathan

  Freedom, Political, Voting

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  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

  Suicide, Freedom, Suicidal

  Letter from John Adams to John Taylor, 15 Apr. 1814

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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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• 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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• 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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• 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 the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.

  E. B. White

  Freedom, White, People

  New Yorker, 3 July 1943

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• Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Sarcastic, Freedom

  'The Soul of Man under Socialism'

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• Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

  C. S. Lewis

  Wisdom, Religious, Freedom

  "The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment". "God in the Dock". Book by C. S. Lewis, 1970.

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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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• 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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