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.

Without liberty, law loses its nature and its name, and becomes oppression. Without law, liberty also loses its nature and read more

Without liberty, law loses its nature and its name, and becomes oppression. Without law, liberty also loses its nature and its name, and becomes licentiousness.

A political career brings out the basest qualities in human nature.

A political career brings out the basest qualities in human nature.

A wise man learns more from his enemies than a fool from his friends.

A wise man learns more from his enemies than a fool from his friends.

Ours is an abiding faith in the cause of human freedom. We know it is God's cause.

Ours is an abiding faith in the cause of human freedom. We know it is God's cause.

By taking this action, I hope that I will have hastened the start of the healing.

By taking this action, I hope that I will have hastened the start of the healing.

It's a sad and stupid thing to have to proclaim yourself a revolutionary just to be a decent man.

It's a sad and stupid thing to have to proclaim yourself a revolutionary just to be a decent man.

There is nothing an economist should fear so much as applause.

There is nothing an economist should fear so much as applause.

The beef industry has contributed to more American deaths than all the wars of this century, all natural disasters, and read more

The beef industry has contributed to more American deaths than all the wars of this century, all natural disasters, and all automobile accidents combined.