“. . . the only legitimate reason that kingship is not attractive to us is because in this age and this world the only kings available are finite and sinful. Listen to C. S. Lewis describe why he believes in democracy: A great deal of democratic enthusiasm descends from the ideas of people like Rousseau, who believed in democracy because they thought mankind so wise and good that everyone deserved a share in the government. The danger of defending democracy on those grounds is that they’re not true. . . I find that they’re not true without looking further than myself. I don’t deserve a share in governing a hen-roost, much less a nation. . . . The real reason for democracy is . . . Mankind is so fallen that no man can be trusted with unchecked power over his fellows. Aristotle said that some people were only fit to be slaves. I do not contradict him. But I reject slavery because I see no men fit to be masters.1 If there could be a king who is not limited in his wisdom and power and goodness and love for his subjects, then monarchy would be the best of all governments. If such a ruler could ever rise in the world—with no weakness, no folly, no sin—then no wise and humble person would ever want democracy again. The question is not whether God broke into the universe as a king. He did. The question is: What kind of king is he? What difference would his kingship make for you?”
“Equality may be a fiction but nonetheless one must accept it as a governing principle.”
“It is not enough to be electors only. It is necessary to be law-makers; otherwise those who can be law-makers will be the masters of those who can only be electors.”
“In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the constitution.”
“We live in a system that espouses merit, equality, and a level playing field, but exalts those with wealth, power, and celebrity, however gained.”
“Remember something, if you will, about voting: Voting is not a horse race, you re not going there thinking Gee, I gotta pick the winner so I can brag to my friends Oh, I picked so-and-so and he or she won . Voting is voting your heart and voting your conscience and when you ve done that, don t ever, EVER let a Democrat or Republican tell you that you ve wasted your vote because the fact is, if you DON T vote your heart and conscience then you HAVE wasted your vote.”
“I really am a pessimist. I ve always felt that fascism is a more natural governmental condition than democracy. Democracy is a grace. It s something essentially splendid because it s not at all routine or automatic. Fascism goes back to our infancy and childhood, where we were always told how to live. We were told, Yes, you may do this; no, you may not do that. So the secret of fascism is that it has this appeal to people whose later lives are not satisfactory.”
“Those in power must spend a lot of their time laughing at us.”
“I have an unshaken conviction that democracy can never be undermined if we maintain our library resources and a national intelligence capable of utilizing them. [Letter to Herbert Putnam; in: Waters, Edward N.: Herbert Putnam: the tallest little man in the world; Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress 33:2 (April 1976), p. 171]”
“Constitutional democracy, you see, is no romantic notion. It s our defense against ourselves, the one foe who might defeat us.”
“Every four years we go through the same cycle of hope and disillusionment.”
“I ve handed life and death back to the people who do the living and the dying.”
“When a library is open, no matter its size or shape, democracy is open, too.”
“The secret of the demagogue is to appear as dumb as his audience so that these people can believe themselves as smart as he is.”
“Americans need to continue to develop broad-based movements that reject the established political parties and rethink the social formations necessary to bring about a radical democracy. We see this in the Black Lives Matter movement as well as in a range of other movements that are resisting corporate money in politics, the widespread destruction of the environment, nuclear war and the mass incarceration state.”
“Our democracy is threatened whenever we take it for granted.”
“In a society where the majority choose charisma over character, democracy does more harm than good to the actual progress of that society”