Quotes Library

November 30, 2025

Democracy encourages the majority to decide things about which the majority is blissfully ignorant.

John Simon (1925–2019), American author and critic, The Portable Curmudgeon, Jon Winokur, ed. (New York: 1987), p.84

Is this the essential weakness of democracy? Do you now understand your purpose in life (political life, that is)?

The truth is that the vast majority of the majority of people don’t give a fig about the things you decide, unless and until it impacts them in some negative way, at which point you will be entirely to blame, even if you voted “No” on the matter.


More Quotes

August 27, 2025
If…a rulership aims not at the common good of the multitude, but at the private good of the ruler, it will be an unjust and perverted rulership.
August 31, 2025
01:05
We are all tattooed in our cradles with the beliefs of our tribe; the record may seem superficial, but it is indelible.
February 21, 2025
I believe democracy to be of all forms of government the most natural, the most consonant with individual liberty.
Page 16 of 123