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It has been observed that a pure democracy if it were practicable would be the most perfect government. Experience has proved that no position is more false than this.

— Alexander Hamilton

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Democracy

More quotes by Alexander Hamilton

As long as offices are open to all men and no constitutional rank is established, it is pure republicanism.

Debates of the Federal Convention (1787)

Here, sir, the people govern; here they act by their immediate representatives.

If they break this Union, they will break my heart.

When the sword is once drawn, the passions of men observe no bounds of moderation.

The Federalist Papers (1787)

The passions of a revolution are apt to hurry even good men into excesses.

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Democracy is the wholesome and pure air without which a socialist public organization cannot live a full-blooded life.

Mikhail Gorbachev

The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class shall represent and repress them in parliament!

Vladimir Lenin The State and Revolution (1917)

The law itself is the instrument of the ruling class; hence it is a logical impossibility for another class to assume power legally.

Oliver Cox Caste, Class, and Race: A Study in Social Dynamics (1948)

The whole dream of democracy is to raise the proletarian to the level of bourgeois stupidity.

Gustave Flaubert

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