Quotes & Sayings About Tyranny Of The Majority

The human condition for the vast majority of people on this planet for the entire time of what humanity has been here has been bondage and tyranny, dictatorship, pestilence. That's really what American exceptionalism is, when you get right down to it. — Rush Limbaugh

We celebrate the beauty and reason of the individual, and resist the coercion of the state and the tyranny of the majority. We laugh and cry about the bullshit 'liberal' and 'conservative' pigeonholes that people throw themselves into. They think we favor violence, but I've been taught how to fight, and you'll probably never find anyone less likely to harm a living creature. — Robert Peate

Democratic forms of government are vulnerable to mass prejudice, the so-called tyranny of the majority. — Maggie Gallagher

That figure stood for a long time wholly in the light; this arose from a certain legendary dimness evolved by the majority of heroes, and which always veils the truth for a longer or shorter time; but to-day history and daylight have arrived.
That light called history is pitiless; it possesses this peculiar and divine quality, that, pure light as it is, and precisely because it is wholly light, it often casts a shadow in places where people had hitherto beheld rays; from the same man it constructs two different phantoms, and the one attacks the other and executes justice on it, and the shadows of the despot contend with the brilliancy of the leader. Hence arises a truer measure in the definitive judgments of nations. Babylon violated lessens Alexander, Rome enchained lessens Caesar, Jerusalem murdered lessens Titus, tyranny follows the tyrant. It is a misfortune for a man to leave behind him the night which bears his form. — Victor Hugo

It was like setting up a guillotine in the public square.You don't expect a thousand people to line up to put their heads in it. — Dave Eggers

The majority falls prey to the delusion popular in some circles that ordinary people are too careless and stupid to own guns, and we would be far better off leaving all weapons in the hands of professionals on the government payroll. But the simple truth born of experience is that tyranny thrives best where government need not fear the wrath of an armed people. — Alex Kozinski

[What Hayek] does not see, or will not admit, [is] that a return to "free" competition means for the great mass of people a tyranny probably worse, because more irresponsible, than that of the State. The trouble with competitions is that somebody wins them. Professor Hayek denies that free capitalism necessarily leads to monopoly, but in practice that is where it has led, and since the vast majority of people would far rather have State regimentation than slumps and unemployment, the drift towards collectivism is bound to continue if popular opinion has any say in the matter. — George Orwell

In a society under the forms of which the stronger faction can readily unite and oppress the weaker, anarchy may as truly be said to reign as in a state of nature. — James Madison

There are many who suppose a democracy cannot be tyrannical, by definition. But of all its forms, the most odious type of tyranny is one propagated by a majority in sole possession of statutory power, giving it free reign to step on and humiliate the minority. Those in the minority should always be afforded an equal right to express their views and have their liberty respected. — W. Kristjan Arnold

Though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable. — Thomas Jefferson

The majority of the stupid is invincible and guaranteed for all time. The terror of their tyranny, however, is alleviated by their lack of consistency. — Albert Einstein

Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority. — John Paul Stevens

The right to vote is a consequence, not a primary cause, of a free social system - and its value depends on the constitutional structure implementing and strictly delimiting the voters' power; unlimited majority rule is an instance of the principle of tyranny. — Ayn Rand

The liberation from ignorance and tyranny was a long war, because the oppressors always had the advantage. They smooth-talked the masses with lies and promises. — Michael R. French

The terrible tyranny of the majority. — Ray Bradbury

I do not believe in the unlimited power of the majority,because tyranny of the majority is tyranny like any other. — Alija Izetbegovic

The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections. — John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton

The majority is by no means omniscient just because it is the majority. In fact, I've found that the line which divides majority opinion from mass hysteria is often so fine as to be virtually invisible. — J. Paul Getty

It is of great importance in a republic, not only to guard the society against the oppression of its rulers; but to guard one part of the society against the injustice of the other part. — James Madison

The most sacred business of judges is not to ratify the will of the majority but to protect the minority from its tyranny. — Anna Quindlen

The majority of business men are not capable of an original thought, simply because they cannot escape the tyranny of reason. — David Ogilvy

The tyranny of majorities may be as bad as the tyranny of kings. — Arthur Balfour

Democracy was a terrifying concept for the old world of Europe, and even the new world of North America, where income inequality was rife. The finest minds of the nineteenth century warned against giving the vote to the workingman, for fear of mob rule or the tyranny of the majority. — George Megalogenis

"All government in essence," says Emerson, "is tyranny." It matters not whether it is government by divine right or majority rule. In every instance its aim is the absolute subordination of the individual. — Emma Goldman

The tyranny of a majority can be just as cruel as the tyranny of a single dictator, depending on the degree of enlightenment or stupidity of the voting majority. — John Hospers

Of course, the aim of a constitutional democracy is to safeguard the rights of the minority and avoid the tyranny of the majority. (p. 102) — Cornel West

[The Bill of Rights is] designed to protect individuals and minorities against the tyranny of the majority, but it's also designed to protect the people against bureaucracy, against the government. — Laurence Tribe

More pernicious than the power of a dictator is that of a class; the most terrible - the tyranny of a majority. — Emma Goldman

Of all tyrannies a country can suffer, the worst is the tyranny of the majority. — William Inge

The creative process requires more than reason. Most original thinking isn't even verbal. It requires 'a groping experimentation with ideas, governed by intuitive hunches and inspired by the unconscious.' The majority of business men are incapable of original thinking because they are unable to escape from the tyranny of reason. Their imaginations are blocked. — David Ogilvy

Oh God, the terrible tyranny of the majority. We all have our harps to play. And it's up to you to know with which ear you'll listen. — Ray Bradbury

[D]emocracy can itself be as tyrannical as a dictatorship, since it is the extent, not the source, of government power that impinges on freedom.
-William F Buckley — William F. Buckley Jr.

The restriction of religion to private life therefore does not necessarily threaten the vital interests of the majority religion, if there is one, and it protects minority religions from tyranny of the majority. — Phillip E. Johnson

Any human being has a fundamental right to fight for their rights, but that (own right) can not include anything that is fundamentally trying to deny others what is their fundamental right.
The root of Tyranny of Majority that Telangana is witnessing in India since 1956 and is expected to end in early 2014 — Venkat Gandhi

Democracy, which began by liberating man politically, has developed a dangerous tendency to enslave him through the tyranny of majorities and the deadly power of their opinion. — Ludwig Lewisohn