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
The best defense against usurpatory government is an assertive citizenry.
—William F. Buckley, Jr. (1925–2008) American TV Personality, Author
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
Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.
—Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) American Christian Theologian
In this and like communities public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed; consequently he who moulds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes and decisions. He makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to be executed.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
At the bottom of all the tributes paid to democracy is the little man walking into the little booth with a little pencil, making a little cross on a little bit of paper. No amount of rhetoric or voluminous discussion can possibly diminish the overwhelming importance of that point.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
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
There is a limit to the application of democratic methods. You can inquire of all the passengers as to what type of car they like to ride in, but it is impossible to question them as to whether to apply the brakes when the train is at full speed and accident threatens.
—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940) Russian Marxist Revolutionary
In a democracy dissent is an act of faith. Like medicine, the test of its value is not in its taste, but its effects.
—J. William Fulbright (1905–95) American Political leader, Politician
Democracy, as I understand it, requires me to sacrifice myself for the masses, not to them. Who knows not that if you would save the people, you must often oppose them?
—John C. Calhoun (1782–1850) American Head of State, Politician, Activist
The real danger of democracy is, that the classes which have the power under it will assume all the rights and reject all the duties-that is, that they will use the political power to plunder those-who-have.
—William Graham Sumner (1840–1910) American Polymath, Academic, Historian, Sociologist, Anthropologist
When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong.
—Eugene V. Debs (1855–1926) American Socialist, Union Leader
The love of democracy is that of equality.
—Montesquieu (1689–1755) French Political Philosopher, Jurist
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, Radical, Inventor
It is a great blessing, says Pascal: “to be born a man of quality, since it brings a man as far forward at eighteen or twenty as another would be at fifty, which is a clear gain of thirty years.” — These thirty years are commonly wanting to the ambitious characters of democracies. — The principle of equality, which allows every man to arrive at everything, prevents all men from rapid advancement.
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–59) French Historian, Political Scientist
The tendency of democracies is, in all things, to mediocrity.
—James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851) American Novelist