An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.
—George Eliot, 1866Quotes
Despotism subjects a nation to one tyrant, democracy to many.
—Marguerite Gardiner, 1839Whenever in history equality appeared on the agenda, it was exported somewhere else, like an undesirable.
—Mary McCarthy, 1971The king times are fast finishing. There will be blood shed like water, and tears like mist; but the peoples will conquer in the end.
—Lord Byron, 1821Some to the common pulpits, and cry out / “Liberty, freedom, and enfranchisement!”
—William Shakespeare, c. 1599An electoral choice of ten different fascists is like choosing which way one wishes to die.
—George Jackson, 1971Do you suppose it possible to know democracy without knowing the people?
—Xenophon, c. 370 BCIn a true democracy, everyone can be upper-class and live in Connecticut.
—Lisa Birnbach, 1980The whole dream of democracy is to raise the proletariat to the level of bourgeois stupidity.
—Gustave Flaubert, 1871Vox populi, vox humbug.
—William Tecumseh Sherman, 1863Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.
—Shimon Peres, 1995Nothing but a permanent body can check the imprudence of democracy.
—Alexander Hamilton, 1787Oh, democracy! Whither are you leading us?
—Aristophanes, 414 BC