To include freedom in the very definition of democracy is to define a process not by its actual characteristics as a process but by its hoped for results. This is not only intellectually invalid, it is, in practical terms, blinding oneself in advance to some of the unwanted consequences of the process.
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A criminal trial is like a Russian novel: it starts with exasperating slowness as the characters are introduced to a read more
A criminal trial is like a Russian novel: it starts with exasperating slowness as the characters are introduced to a jury, then there are complications in the form of minor witnesses, the protagonist finally appears and contradictions arise to produce drama, and finally as both jury and spectators grow weary and confused the pace quickens, reaching its climax in passionate final argument.
Ever since the beginning of modern science, the best minds have recognized that "the range of acknowledged ignorance will grow read more
Ever since the beginning of modern science, the best minds have recognized that "the range of acknowledged ignorance will grow with the advance of science." Unfortunately, the popular effect of this scientific advance has been a belief, seemingly shared by many scientists, that the range of our ignorance is steadily diminishing and that we can therefore aim at more comprehensive and deliberate control of all human activities. It is for this reason that those intoxicated by the advance of knowledge so often become the enemies of freedom.
War will never cease until babies begin to come into the world with larger cerebrums and smaller adrenal glands.
War will never cease until babies begin to come into the world with larger cerebrums and smaller adrenal glands.
Diplomats were invented simply to waste time.
Diplomats were invented simply to waste time.
No matter how disastrously some policy has turned out, anyone who criticizes it can expect to hear: "But what would read more
No matter how disastrously some policy has turned out, anyone who criticizes it can expect to hear: "But what would you replace it with?" When you put out a fire, what do you replace it with?
What the public does is not to express its opinions but to align itself for or against a proposal. If read more
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.
I'm proud that I'm a politician. A politician is a man who understands government, and it takes a politician to read more
I'm proud that I'm a politician. A politician is a man who understands government, and it takes a politician to run a government. A statesman is a politician who's been dead 10 or 15 years.
If you seek violence, we will seek to put you in jail.
If you seek violence, we will seek to put you in jail.
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
