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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.
It is not in the nature of politics that the best men should be elected. The best men do not read more
It is not in the nature of politics that the best men should be elected. The best men do not want to govern their fellowmen.
If school results were the key to power, girls would be running the world.
If school results were the key to power, girls would be running the world.
Canada has never been a melting pot; more like a tossed salad.
Canada has never been a melting pot; more like a tossed salad.
Democracy: In which you say what you like and do what you're told.
Democracy: In which you say what you like and do what you're told.
Rank and riches are chains of gold, but still chains.
Rank and riches are chains of gold, but still chains.
A democratic despotism is like a theocracy: it assumes its own correctness.
A democratic despotism is like a theocracy: it assumes its own correctness.
I'd rather keep my promises to other politicians than to God. God, at least, has a degree of forgiveness.
I'd rather keep my promises to other politicians than to God. God, at least, has a degree of forgiveness.
No amount of study or learning will make a man a leader unless he has the natural qualities of one. read more
No amount of study or learning will make a man a leader unless he has the natural qualities of one. - "London Times", February 17, 1941.
