“He was holding his breath so as not to inhale the odor of democracy.”
“As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.”
“Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.”
“A great democracy has got to be progressive or it will soon cease to be great or a democracy.”
“The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”
“Democracy is the name we give the people whenever we need them.”
“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”
“Electorates tend to get the politicians they deserve.”
“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge. ”
“Elections belong to the people. It s their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.”
“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.”
“No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have searched the record for years, and employed agents to help me—has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.”
“It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see... You mean, it comes from a world of lizards? No, said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people. Odd, said Arthur, I thought you said it was a democracy. I did, said Ford. It is. So, said Arthur, hoping he wasn t sounding ridiculously obtuse, why don t people get rid of the lizards? It honestly doesn t occur to them, said Ford. They ve all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they ve voted in more or less approximates to the government they want. You mean they actually vote for the lizards? Oh yes, said Ford with a shrug, of course. But, said Arthur, going for the big one again, why? Because if they didn t vote for a lizard, said Ford, the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin? What? I said, said Ford, with an increasing air of urgency creeping into his voice, have you got any gin? I ll look. Tell me about the lizards. Ford shrugged again. Some people say that the lizards are the best thing that ever happenned to them, he said. They re completely wrong of course, completely and utterly wrong, but someone s got to say it. But that s terrible, said Arthur. Listen, bud, said Ford, if I had one Altairian dollar for every time I heard one bit of the Universe look at another bit of the Universe and say That s terrible I wouldn t be sitting here like a lemon looking for a gin.”
“Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.”
“I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts, and beer.”
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy.”
“I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run.”