Democracy Is Bad/Quotes

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Democracy is the absolute worst form of government--except, of course, for all those others.

A second flood, a simple famine, plagues of locusts everywhere Or a cataclysmic earthquake I'd accept with some despair But no, you sent us Congress-- Good God, sir, was that fair? —John Adams, 1776

Democracy is nothing but the Tyranny of Majorities, the most abominable tyranny of all, for it is not based on the authority of a religion, not upon the nobility of a race, not on the merits of talents and of riches. It merely rests upon numbers and hides behind the name of the people. —Pierre J. Proudhon, founder of Anarchism

What kind of man would put a known criminal in charge of a major branch of government? Apart from, say, the average voter. —Going Postal

Of all my master schemes to take over the world, the thousands I killed with my army of robotic suicide squirrels, the millions I spent trying to kill you all with Push n' Eat macaroni in a tube, my even-as-of-yet uncompleted orbital death ray, and all I had to do was run for president?! I wasn't really even taking all this all that seriously! I even used my real name! You voted for a guy named Dr. Insano! My election platform was to build a giant robot sawblade that would cut Canada off the top and then attach it to Australia so they wouldn't bother us anymore! My vice president is Fu Manchu! What the hell is wrong with you people?! —Noah 'The Spoony One' Antwiler as Dr. Insano

And so we are all equally dissatisfied. Democracy at its finest. —Marluxia, in Ch. 70 of The Renegades

Giving power to the inferior components of a nation could only produce inferior results. Those mediocre and substandard minds - uneducated, self-centred, avaricious, prejudiced, chauvinistically patriotic - would ultimately bring about the downfall of their society —Alizome Tor Fel-A, in Star Trek: Typhon Pact: "Rough Beasts of Empire"

Democracy is a poor system of government at best; the only thing that can honestly be said in its favor is that it is about eight times as good as any other method the human race has ever tried. Democracy's worst fault is that its leaders are likely to reflect the faults and virtues of their constituents - at a depressingly low level. —Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

Democracy is necessarily despotism, as it establishes an executive power contrary to the general will; all being able to decide against one whose opinion may differ, the will of all is therefore not that of all: which is contradictory and opposite to liberty. —Immanuel Kant, Perpetual Peace, II, 1795.

'Democratic' decision making is a means for finding and implementing the will of the majority; it has no other function. It serves, not to encourage diversity, but to prevent it. —David Friedman, The Machinery of Freedom, 88

Envy is the basis of democracy. —Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness, VI, 1930.

If Voting Changed Anything They'd Abolish It —Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London 2000 - 2008, published an autobiography-cum-political tract in 1988 with this title. ISBN 9780006373353 (also attributed to Emma Goldman)

In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love; they had 500 years of democracy and peace -- and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. —Orson Welles as Harry Lime in The Third Man, 1949. (Note: The cuckoo clock is actually a German invention)

From this view of the subject it may be concluded that a pure democracy, by which I mean a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person, can admit of no cure for the mischiefs of faction. A common passion or interest will, in almost every case, be felt by a majority of the whole; a communication and concert result from the form of government itself; and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party or an obnoxious individual. Hence it is that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths. —James Madison, Federalist Paper #10

Democracy is beautiful in theory; in practice it is a fallacy. You in America will see that some day. —Benito Mussolini

Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. —John Adams

When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic. —Benjamin Franklin

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter. —Winston Churchill

Many forms of Government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time. —Winston Churchill

The great thing about democracy is that it gives every voter a chance to do something stupid. —Art Spander

One-man-one-vote combined with 'free entry' into government – democracy – implies that every person and his personal property comes within reach of – and is up for grabs by – everyone else: a 'tragedy of the commons' is created. —Hans-Hermann Hoppe

The larger the mob, the harder the test. In small areas, before small electorates, a first-rate man occasionally fights his way through, carrying even the mob with him by force of his personality. But when the field is nationwide, and the fight must be waged chiefly at second and third hand, and the force of personality cannot so readily make itself felt, then all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre – the man who can most easily adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum... The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron. —H.L. Mencken

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard. —H. L. Mencken

Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. —H. L. Mencken

Democratic law does not say, “Thou shalt not kill”. Instead, it designates certain people who have the right to kill — soldiers and State police. Democratic law does not order, “Thou shalt not steal”. It says that only certain people have the right to steal — tax and customs agents. What does “power to the people” mean when the people enjoy fewer rights than their supposed servants? —Christian Michel

Gang rape, after all, is democracy in action. —Terry Goodkind

Ha ha, great system, your 'democracy.' No system to break a tie! —Dinobot

Democracy is a cancer eating away at the heart of our society. Any action taken to stamp it out, however regrettable, is justified. —Judge Dredd

Democracy is an abuse of statistics. — Jorge Luis Borges, as quoted in Democracy and Dictatorship in Latin America: A Special Publication Devoted Entirely to the Voices and Opinions of Writers from Latin America by Octavio Paz

One of the things that the fans of the theory of Democratic Peace, the theory that democracies tend to be at peace with each other, tend to forget is that Gaza and Israel are both democracies. [...] If Gaza was ruled by a King, then if that King was to decide for war, that decision would make him holier, but might well get him killed. But if a voter in Gaza votes for war, his vote makes him holier, but makes absolutely no difference to his chance of being killed, since it is only one vote of millions. From the point of view of the voter, the ideal outcome is that he votes for war, but is, alas, outvoted, by all those inferior people less holy than himself [...] — Need to kill a lot more civilians in Gaza on Jim's Blog