A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine. (Thomas Jefferson)
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. (C. S. Lewis)
Democracy is a process by which the people are free to choose the man who will get the blame. (Laurence J. Peter)
Democracy encourages the majority to decide things about which the majority is ignorant. (John Simon)
Tyranny and despotism can be exercised by many, more rigourously, more vigourously, and more severely, than by one. (Andrew Johnson)
Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual) -- (Ayn Rand)
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote! (Benjamin Franklin)
Fifty-one percent of a nation can establish a totalitarian regime, suppress minorities and still remain democratic. (Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn)
Perhaps the fact that we have seen millions voting themselves into complete dependence on a tyrant has made our generation understand that to choose one's government is not necessarily to secure freedom. (F.A. Hayek)
If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. (Federalist Papers)
Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.
(George Bernard Shaw)
Government is a broker in pillage, and every election is a sort of advance auction in stolen goods. (H.L. Mencken)
