It is the besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law. This is the usual form in which read more

It is the besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law. This is the usual form in which the masses of men exhibit their tyranny.

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.

War is a ritual, a deadly ritual, not the result of aggressive self-assertion, but of self-transcending identification. Without loyalty to read more

War is a ritual, a deadly ritual, not the result of aggressive self-assertion, but of self-transcending identification. Without loyalty to tribe, church, flag or ideal, there would be no wars.

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.

Systems are to be appreciated by their general effects, and not by particular exceptions.

Systems are to be appreciated by their general effects, and not by particular exceptions.

Did you ever hear anyone say "That work had better be banned because I might read it and it might read more

Did you ever hear anyone say "That work had better be banned because I might read it and it might be very dangerous to me?

From each, according to his ability; to each, according to his need.

From each, according to his ability; to each, according to his need.

In Germany, they first came for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they read more

In Germany, they first came for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Catholic. Then they came for me -- and by that time there was nobody left to speak up.

Justice delayed is justice denied.

Justice delayed is justice denied.