Democracy Quotes
Barack Obama and the Nigerian president Bola Tinubu have the most entries, with H. L. Mencken and Franklin Roosevelt behind them, so a lot of the page is speeches. For the dry material go to Mencken in Smart Set (1910), who called democracy the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard; Shaw’s Maxims for Revolutionists (1903), on election by the incompetent many instead of appointment by the corrupt few; and Disraeli’s Lothair (1870).
“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch” is credited to Benjamin Franklin and flagged misattributed. The earliest version in the notes is a Usenet post from 23 April 1990. The line that democracy is the most vile form of government, credited to Madison, is flagged too.
A marvel that has nothing to offer, democracy is at once a nation's paradise and its tomb.
There is no democracy in the world of intellect, and no democracy of taste.
You may succeed in delaying, but never in preventing the transition of South Africa to a democracy.
There is nothing more corrosive to a democracy than the idea that there is no truth.