Archive

Quotes

The whole dream of democracy is to raise the proletariat to the level of bourgeois stupidity.

—Gustave Flaubert, 1871

The people are the foundation of the state. If the foundations are firm, the state will be tranquil.

—Classic of History, c. 400 BC

The only equals are those who are equally rich.

—Burundian proverb

If the people be the governors, who shall be governed?

—John Cotton, c. 1636

Despotism subjects a nation to one tyrant, democracy to many.

—Marguerite Gardiner, 1839

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

—Shimon Peres, 1995

All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it.

—Henry David Thoreau, 1849

What touches all shall be approved by all.

—Edward I, 1295

In America, everybody is, but some are more than others.

—Gertrude Stein, 1937

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

—Oscar Wilde, 1891

Oh, democracy! Whither are you leading us?

—Aristophanes, 414 BC

I have always been of the mind that in a democracy, manners are the only effective weapons against the bowie knife.

—James Russell Lowell, 1873

Do you suppose it possible to know democracy without knowing the people?

—Xenophon, c. 370 BC