Archive

Quotes

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

—Oscar Wilde, 1891

Vox populi, vox humbug.

—William Tecumseh Sherman, 1863

Whenever in history equality appeared on the agenda, it was exported somewhere else, like an undesirable.

—Mary McCarthy, 1971

Television is democracy at its ugliest.

—Paddy Chayefsky, 1976

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

—Xenophon, c. 370 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

Nothing but a permanent body can check the imprudence of democracy.

—Alexander Hamilton, 1787

Democracy 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, 1946

In a true democracy, everyone can be upper-class and live in Connecticut.

—Lisa Birnbach, 1980

Oh, democracy! Whither are you leading us?

—Aristophanes, 414 BC

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

—Gustave Flaubert, 1871

Let the people think they govern, and they will be governed.

—William Penn, 1693

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

—John Cotton, c. 1636