Governments will always misuse the machinery of the law as far as the state of public opinion permits.

Governments will always misuse the machinery of the law as far as the state of public opinion permits.

I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.

I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.

...no civilized society can long exist, with an active power in its bosom that is stronger than the law.

...no civilized society can long exist, with an active power in its bosom that is stronger than the law.

The power of a movement lies in the fact that it can indeed change the habits of people. This change read more

The power of a movement lies in the fact that it can indeed change the habits of people. This change is not the result of force but of dedication, of moral persuasion.

Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility read more

Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.

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.

Social justice is a semantic fraud from the same stable as People's Democracy.

Social justice is a semantic fraud from the same stable as People's Democracy.

Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.

Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.

The only kind of freedom that the mob can imagine is freedom to annoy and oppress its betters, and that read more

The only kind of freedom that the mob can imagine is freedom to annoy and oppress its betters, and that is precisely the kind that we mainly have.