Famous Quotes & Sayings

Ayn Rand

The right to vote is a consequence, not a primary cause, of a free social system - and its value depends on the constitutional structure implementing and strictly delimiting the voters' power; unlimited majority rule is an instance of the principle of tyranny.

Adolf Hitler

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

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...

Thomas Jefferson

Though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable.

Jefferson Davis

Neither current events nor history show that the majority rule, or ever did rule.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

It is unnatural for a majority to rule, for a majority can seldom be organized and united for specific action, and a minority can.

P. J. O'Rourke

Now majority rule is a precious, sacred thing worth dying for. But like other precious, sacred things .... it's not only worth dying for; it can make you wish you were dead. Imagine if all life were determined by majority rule. Every meal would be a pizza.

Kent Conrad

America was founded on majority rule, not supermajority rule. Somehow, over the years, this has morphed into supermajority rule, and that changes things.

Samuel P. Huntington

Democracy is premised, in some measure, on majority rule, and democracy is difficult in a situation of concentrated inequalities in which a large, impoverished majority confronts a small, wealthy oligarchy.

Alan Moore

If you're going to have any kind of political opposition in the 21st century, then it has to be as fundamentally liquid as the rapidly changing society we're living in.

Eartha Kitt

I don't wear my political feelings on my sleeve. However, if I'm asked, I will answer honestly.

David Remnick

Not all political prisoners are innocents.

David Hume

A too great disproportion among the citizens weakens any state. Every person, if possible, ought to enjoy the fruits of his labour, in a full possession of all the necessities, and many of the conveniences of life. No one can doubt, but such an equality is most suitable to human nature, and diminishes much less from the happiness of the rich than it adds to that of the poor.

David Brinkley

Numerous politicians have seized absolute power and muzzled the press. Never in history has the press seized absolute power and muzzled the politicians.

David Brin

Only a knowledgeable, empowered and vocal citizenry can perform well in democracy.

Benazir Bhutto

I'm not into smoke-filled rooms. I don't have the time for byzantine political intrigues.

Beatrice Webb

That part of the Englishman's nature which has found gratification in religion is now drifting into political life.

Asne Seierstad

There are personal reasons, psychological reasons, but there could also be political reasons for becoming a terrorist.

Alan Bradley

Liberals have always been the most fervent Imperialists.

David Hume

Of all sciences there is none where first appearances are more deceitful than in politics.

Charles de Gaulle

I'm not at all embarrassed to be a revolutionary.

Charles H. Percy

Unless we increase our economy's productivity-its vitality and competitiveness-we will face pressure for increasing controls.

Norman Finkelstein

Personal convictions are not politics. Personal convictions, if they become the subject of a group conviction, they become a cult.

Camille Paglia

[Sarah] Palin is solidifying her status as a bona fide American cultural heroine.

Caspar Weinberger

We must recognize that personal freedoms diminish as the welfare state grows. The price of more and more public programs is less and less private freedom.

Dennis Miller

I went to the UN and even the guidebook was spineless.

Dennis Miller

Al Gore couldn't be more phony if he were a professional Al Gore impersonator