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    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.

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Activate yourself to duty by remembering your position, who you are, and what you have obliged yourself to be.

Activate yourself to duty by remembering your position, who you are, and what you have obliged yourself to be.

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  4  /  22  

Americans are benevolently ignorant about Canada, while Canadians are malevolently well informed about the United States.

Americans are benevolently ignorant about Canada, while Canadians are malevolently well informed about the United States.

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The world of politics is always twenty years behind the world of thought.

The world of politics is always twenty years behind the world of thought.

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The office of president is a bastardized thing, half royalty and half democracy, that nobody knows whether to genuflect or read more

The office of president is a bastardized thing, half royalty and half democracy, that nobody knows whether to genuflect or spit.

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Once you get into this great stream of history, you can't get out.

Once you get into this great stream of history, you can't get out.

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Power tires only those who do not have it.

Power tires only those who do not have it.

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  10  /  19  

The American people want to preserve their American heritage, and they have the quaint belief that public lands belong to read more

The American people want to preserve their American heritage, and they have the quaint belief that public lands belong to them as much as to the people of the state where the lands are located.

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There are two methods, or means, and only two, whereby man's needs and desires can be satisfied. One is the read more

There are two methods, or means, and only two, whereby man's needs and desires can be satisfied. One is the production and exchange of wealth; this is the economic means. The other is the uncompensated appropriation of wealth produced by others; this is the political means.

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  11  /  22  

A new poll showed that if the election was held today, people would be confused because it is normally held read more

A new poll showed that if the election was held today, people would be confused because it is normally held in November.

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