Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [221-240] of 356 Democracy quotesDemocracy QuotesDemocracy Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes [T]he delegation of the government, in [a republic], to a small number of citizens elected by the rest . . . [is] to refine and enlarge the public views by passing them through the medium of a chosen body of citizens, whose wisdom may best discern the true interest of their country and whose patriotism and love of justice will be least likely to sacrifice it to temporary or partial considerations.~ James Madison Landholders ought to have a share in the government to support these invaluable interests and check the other many. They ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority.~ James Madison Reaching consensus in a group is often confused with finding the right answer.~ Norman Mailer Truth does not become more true by virtue of the fact that the entire world agrees with it, nor less so even if the whole world disagrees with it.~ Maimonides Democracy is a form of government that cannot long survive, for as soon as the people learn that they have a voice in the fiscal policies of the government, they will move to vote for themselves all the money in the treasury, and bankrupt the nation.~ Karl Marx In literature as in love, we are astonished by what is chosen by others.~ Andre Maurois The fact is that there is a serious danger of this country becoming a pluto-democracy; that is, a sham republic with the real government in the hands of a small clique of enormously wealthy men, who speak through their money, and whose influence, even today, radiates to every corner of the United States.~ William Gibbs McAdoo The art of politics, under democracy, is simply the art of ringing it. Two branches reveal themselves. There is the art of the demagogue, and there is the art of what may be called, by a shot-gun marriage of Latin and Greek, the demaslave. They are complementary, and both of them are degrading to their practitioners. The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots. The demaslave is one who listens to what these idiots have to say and then pretends that he believes it himself.~ H. L. Mencken Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.~ H. L. Mencken Democracy is a form of religion, it is the worship of jackals by jack asses.~ H. L. Mencken Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule -- and both commonly succeed, and are right.~ H. L. Mencken Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods.~ H. L. Mencken If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.~ John Stuart Mill Protection, therefore, against the tyranny of the magistrate is not enough; there needs protection against the tyranny of the prevailing opinion and feeling, against the tendency of society to impose, by other means than civil penalties, its own ideas and practices as rules of conduct on those who dissent from them.~ John Stuart Mill A general State education is a mere contrivance for molding people to be exactly like one another; and as the mold in which it casts them is that which pleases the dominant power in the government, whether this be a monarch, an aristocracy, or a majority of the existing generation; in proportion as it is efficient and successful, it establishes a despotism over the mind, leading by a natural tendency to one over the body.~ John Stuart Mill Here the great art lies, to discern in what the law is to bid restraint and punishment, and in what things persuasion only is to work.~ John Milton [In a republic,] it is not the people themselves who make the decisions, but the people they themselves choose to stand in their places.~ James Monroe We owe to democracy, at least in part, the regime of discussion with which we live; we owe it to the principal modern liberties: those of thought, press and association. And the regime of free discussion is the only one which permits the ruling class to renew itself… which eliminates that class quasi-automatically when it no longer corresponds to the interests of the country.~ Gaetano Mosca We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes which were, for the moment, unpopular.~ Edward R. Murrow Fascism should rightly be called Corporatism as it is a merge of state and corporate power.~ Benito Mussolini Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print