You May Also Like / View all maxioms
To succeed in politics, it is often necessary to rise above your principles.
To succeed in politics, it is often necessary to rise above your principles.
Nobody believes a rumor here in Washington until it's officially denied.
Nobody believes a rumor here in Washington until it's officially denied.
Who fears to speak of Ninety-Eight?
Who blushes at the name?
When cowards mock the patriot's fate,
read more
Who fears to speak of Ninety-Eight?
Who blushes at the name?
When cowards mock the patriot's fate,
Who hangs his head for shame?
Individuality is freedom lived.
Individuality is freedom lived.
The need for Government is the need for force; where force is unnecessary, there is no need for Government.
The need for Government is the need for force; where force is unnecessary, there is no need for Government.
The glory of a nation and an age is always the work of a few great persons, and it disappears read more
The glory of a nation and an age is always the work of a few great persons, and it disappears with them.
Perhaps America will one day go fascist democratically, by popular vote.
Perhaps America will one day go fascist democratically, by popular vote.
Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made.
Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made.
Except in the sacred texts of democracy and in the incantations of orators, we hardly take the trouble to pretend read more
Except in the sacred texts of democracy and in the incantations of orators, we hardly take the trouble to pretend that the rule of the majority is not at bottom a rule of force. What other virtue can there be in fifty-one percent except the brute fact that fifty-one is more than forty-nine? The rule of fifty-one per cent is a convenience, it is for certain matters a satisfactory political device, it is for others the lesser of two evils, and for others it is acceptable because we do not know any less troublesome method of obtaining a political decision. But it may easily become an absurd tyranny if we regard it worshipfully, as though it were more than a political device. We have lost all sense of its true meaning when we imagine that the opinion of fifty-one per cent is in some high fashion the true opinion of the whole hundred per cent, or indulge in the sophistry that the rule of a majority is based upon the ultimate equality of man.
