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

January 16, 2025
[On Friedrich Hayek’s Road to Serfdom] A plan to resist all planning may be better than its opposite, but it belongs to the same style of politics.
July 12, 2025
Do not let the ingratitude of many men deter you from doing good to others.
June 1, 2025
The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance
Page 26 of 123