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    What the public does is not to express its opinions but to align itself for or against a proposal. If that theory is accepted, we must abandon the notion that democratic government can be the direct expression of the will of the people. We must abandon the notion that the people govern. Instead we must adopt the theory that, by their occasional mobilizations as a majority, people support or oppose the individuals who actually govern. We must say that the popular will does not direct continuously but that it intervenes occasionally.

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It is seldom that any liberty is lost all at once.

It is seldom that any liberty is lost all at once.

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...there is no glory in battle worth the blood it costs.

...there is no glory in battle worth the blood it costs.

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It is a dangerous and idle dream to think that the state can become rule by philosophers turned kings or read more

It is a dangerous and idle dream to think that the state can become rule by philosophers turned kings or scientists turned commissars. For if philosophers become kings or scientists commissars, they become politicians, and the powers given to the state are powers given to men who are rulers of states, men subject to all the limitations and temptations of their dangerous craft. Unless this is borne in mind, there will be a dangerous optimistic tendency to sweep aside doubts and fears as irrelevant, since, in the state that the projectors have in mind, power will be exercised by men of a wisdom and degree of moral virtue that we have not yet seen. It won't. It will be exercised by men who will be men first and rulers next and scientists and saints long after.

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The tendency of democracies is, in all things, to mediocrity.

The tendency of democracies is, in all things, to mediocrity.

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Chinks in America's egalitarian armor are not hard to find. Democracy is the fig leaf of elitism.

Chinks in America's egalitarian armor are not hard to find. Democracy is the fig leaf of elitism.

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Enemies promises were made to be broken.

Enemies promises were made to be broken.

by Aesop Found in: Politics / government Quotes,
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I've analyzed the best I can ... and I have not found an impeachable offense, and therefore resignation is not read more

I've analyzed the best I can ... and I have not found an impeachable offense, and therefore resignation is not an acceptable course.

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Take away the cause, and the effect ceases.

Take away the cause, and the effect ceases.

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...no civilized society can long exist, with an active power in its bosom that is stronger than the law.

...no civilized society can long exist, with an active power in its bosom that is stronger than the law.

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