It is the very essence of despotism that it can never afford to fail. This is what distinguishes it most read more

It is the very essence of despotism that it can never afford to fail. This is what distinguishes it most vitally from democracy. In a despotism there is no organized opposition which can take over the power when the Administration in office has failed. All the eggs are in one basket. Everything is staked on one coterie of men. When the going is good, they move more quickly and efficiently than democracies, where the opposition has to be persuaded and conciliated. But when they lose, there are no reserves. There are no substitutes on the bench ready to go out on the field and carry the ball. That is why democracies with the habit of party government have outlived all other forms of government in the modern world. They have, as it were, at least two governments always at hand, and when one fails they have the other. They have diversified the risks of mortality, corruption, and stupidity which pervade all human affairs. They have remembered that the most beautifully impressive machine cannot run for very long unless there is available a complete supply of spare parts.

Up men to your posts! Don't forget today that you are from old Virginia. - Gettysburg, July 3, 1863.

Up men to your posts! Don't forget today that you are from old Virginia. - Gettysburg, July 3, 1863.

In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards.

In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards.

A billion here and a billion there, and soon you're talking about real money.

A billion here and a billion there, and soon you're talking about real money.

In a democracy, dissent is an act of faith.

In a democracy, dissent is an act of faith.

The most successful career must show a waste of strength that might have removed mountains, and the most unsuccessful is read more

The most successful career must show a waste of strength that might have removed mountains, and the most unsuccessful is not that of the man who is taken unprepared, but of him who has prepared and is never taken. On a tragedy of that kind our national morality is duly silent.

When people revolt in a totalitarian society, they rise not against the wickedness of the regime but its weakness.

When people revolt in a totalitarian society, they rise not against the wickedness of the regime but its weakness.

Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to read more

Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule--and both commonly succeed, and are right.

The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is read more

The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime, and the punishment of his guilt.