DEMOCRACY
Liberal friendly quotes:
"Democracy is the worst form of government except all
those other forms that have been tried from time to time."
-- Winston Churchill, speech, House of Commons, Nov. 1947
"You will never escape the will of the mob, about the best
anyone has ever figured out to do is herd them into voting booths."
-- Barry Shein
"If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this
Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed
as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be
tolerated where reason is left free to combat it."
-- Thomas Jefferson, 1st Inaugural, 4-Mar-1801
"And where else will [Hume,] this degenerate son of science,
this traitor to his fellow men, find the origin of just powers,
if not in the majority of the society? Will it be in the minority?
Or in an individual of that minority?"
-- Thomas Jefferson to J. Cartwright, 1824
"Where the law of the majority ceases to be acknowledged,
there government ends; the law of the strongest takes its place,
and life and property are his who can take them."
-- Thomas Jefferson to Annapolis Citizens, 1809
"Is uniformity of opinion desirable? No more than of face
and stature."
-- Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Va., 1782
"Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women
and children since the introduction of Christianity have been
burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned, yet we have not advanced
one inch toward uniformity."
-- Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Va., 1782
"Difference of opinion leads to enquiry, and enquiry to truth;
and I am sure… we both value too much the freedom of opinion
sanctioned by our Constitution, not to cherish its exercise even
where in opposition to ourselves."
-- Thomas Jefferson to Mr. Wendover, 1815
"Every man cannot have his way in all things. If his opinion
prevails at some times, he should acquiesce on seeing that of
others preponderate at other times. Without this mutual disposition
we are disjointed individuals, but not a society."
-- Thomas Jefferson to J. Dickinson, 1801
"We are sensible of the duty and expediency of submitting
our opinions to the will of the majority, and can wait with patience
till they get right if they happen to be at any time wrong."
-- Thomas Jefferson to J. Breckenridge, 1800
"If the measures which have been pursued are approved by
the majority, it is the duty of the minority to acquiesce and
conform."
-- Thomas Jefferson to W. Duane, 1811
"Bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will
of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful,
must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights,
which equal laws must protect, and to violate would be oppression."
-- Thomas Jefferson: 1st Inaugural, 1801
And from the other side...
"The young [Nazi] movement is in its nature and inner organization
anti-parliamentarian; that is, it rejects… a principle of
majority rule in which the leader is degraded to the level of
mere executant of other people's wills and opinion."
-- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 344
"The [Nazi party] should not become a constable of public
opinion, but must dominate it. It must not become a servant of
the masses, but their master!"
-- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 465
"By rejecting the authority of the individual and replacing
it by the numbers of some momentary mob, the parliamentary principle
of majority rule sins against the basic aristocratic principle
of Nature…"
-- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 81
"For there is one thing we must never forget… the majority
can never replace the man. And no more than a hundred empty heads
make one wise man will an heroic decision arise from a hundred
cowards."
-- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 82
"There must be no majority decisions, but only responsible
persons, and the word 'council' must be restored to its original
meaning. Surely every man will have advisers by his side, but
the decision will be made by one man."
-- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 449
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