Democracy quotations

Page 3

◆ A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy.

- Elmer T Peterson99

◆ A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.

- Theodore Roosevelt99

◆ If voting made any difference they wouldn't let us do it.

- Mark Twain99

◆ Elections belong to the people. It's their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.

- Abraham Lincoln99

◆ Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

- Martin Luther King Jr.99

◆ I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts, and beer.

- Abraham Lincoln99

◆ As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. 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. Mencken99

◆ Democracy! Bah! When I hear that I reach for my feather boa!

- Allen Ginsberg99

◆ It is an axiom in my mind, that our liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people themselves, and that too of the people with a certain degree of instruction. This it is the business of the State to effect, and on a general plan.

- Thomas Jefferson99

◆ Democracy is not freedom. Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to eat for lunch. Freedom comes from the recognition of certain rights which may not be taken, not even by a 99% vote.

- Marvin Simkin99

◆ Any war that requires the suspension of reason as a necessity for support is a bad war.

- Norman Mailer99

◆ The terrible tyranny of the majority.

- Ray Bradbury99

◆ Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy; it is absolutely essential to it.

- Howard Zinn99

◆ Do you know that one of the great problems of our age is that we are governed by people who care more about feelings than they do about thoughts and ideas.

- Margaret Thatcher99

◆ In politics as in philosophy, my tenets are few and simple. The leading one of which, and indeed that which embraces most others, is to be honest and just ourselves and to exact it from others, meddling as little as possible in their affairs where our own are not involved. If this maxim was generally adopted, wars would cease and our swords would soon be converted into reap hooks and our harvests be more peaceful, abundant, and happy.

- George Washington99