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Parliamentary government is simply a mild and disguised form of compulsion. We agree to try strength by counting heads instead of breaking heads, but the principle is exactly the same... The minority gives way not because it is convinced that it is wrong, but because it is convinced that it is a minority.

— James Fitzjames Stephen Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (1873)

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More quotes by James Fitzjames Stephen

Men have an all but incurable propensity to try to prejudge all the great questions which interest them by stamping their prejudices upon their language.

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (1873)

Originality consists in thinking for yourself, not in thinking differently from other people.

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (1873)

To try to make men equal by altering social arrangements is like trying to make the cards of equal value by shuffling the pack.

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (1873)

The criminal law stands to the passion of revenge in much the same relation as marriage to the sexual appetite.

A General View Of The Criminal Law Of England (1863)

Persuasion, indeed, is a kind of force. It consists in showing a person the consequences of his actions. It is, in a word, force applied through the mind.

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (1873)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: James Fitzjames Stephen (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.