Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.
—Oscar Wilde, 1891Quotes
Vox populi, vox humbug.
—William Tecumseh Sherman, 1863Whenever in history equality appeared on the agenda, it was exported somewhere else, like an undesirable.
—Mary McCarthy, 1971Television is democracy at its ugliest.
—Paddy Chayefsky, 1976Do you suppose it possible to know democracy without knowing the people?
—Xenophon, c. 370 BCI have always been of the mind that in a democracy, manners are the only effective weapons against the bowie knife.
—James Russell Lowell, 1873Nothing but a permanent body can check the imprudence of democracy.
—Alexander Hamilton, 1787Democracy produces both heroes and villains, but it differs from a fascist state in that it does not produce a hero who is a villain.
—Margaret Halsey, 1946In a true democracy, everyone can be upper-class and live in Connecticut.
—Lisa Birnbach, 1980Oh, democracy! Whither are you leading us?
—Aristophanes, 414 BCThe whole dream of democracy is to raise the proletariat to the level of bourgeois stupidity.
—Gustave Flaubert, 1871Let the people think they govern, and they will be governed.
—William Penn, 1693If the people be the governors, who shall be governed?
—John Cotton, c. 1636