Bertrand Russell Quotes About Democracy
-
Democracy is the process by which people choose the man who'll get the blame.
→ -
An Honest politician will not be tolerated by a democracy unless he is very stupid ... because only a very stupid man can honestly share the prejudices of more than half the nation.
→ -
Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man.
→ -
If one man offers you democracy and another offers you a bag of grain, at what stage of starvation do you prefer the grain to the vote?
→ -
Envy is the basis of democracy.
→ -
Democracy has at least one merit, namely that a Member of Parliament cannot be stupider than his constituents, for the more stupid he is, the more stupid they were to elect him.
→ -
A fanatical belief in democracy makes democratic institutions impossible.
→ -
One of the chief obstacles to intelligence is credulity, and credulity could be enormously diminished by instructions as to the prevalent forms of mendacity. Credulity is a greater evil in the present day than it ever was before, because, owing to the growth of education, it is much easier than it used to be to spread misinformation, and, owing to democracy, the spread of misinformation is more important than in former times to the holders of power.
→ -
The institution of representative government to us seems an essential part of democracy, but the ancients never thought of it. Its immense merit was that it enabled a large constituency to exert indirect power, and thus made possible the distribution of political responsibility throughout the great states of modern times.
→ -
Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature has made them.
→ -
A democrat need not believe that the majority will always reach a wise decision. He should however believe in the necessity of accepting the decision of the majority, be it wise or unwise, until such a time that the majority reaches another decision.
→ -
In a democracy it is necessary that people should learn to endure having their sentiments outraged.
→ -
To acquire immunity to eloquence is of the utmost importance to the citizens of a democracy.
→
Related Authors
-
Russell Crowe Actor -
Rudolf Carnap Philosopher -
David Hume Philosopher -
G. H. Hardy Mathematician -
Friedrich Nietzsche Philologist -
Gottlob Frege Mathematician -
George Boole Mathematician -
Albert Einstein Theoretical Physicist -
Immanuel Kant Philosopher -
John Stuart Mill Philosopher -
Ludwig Wittgenstein Philosopher -
Karl Popper Philosopher -
Jean-Paul Sartre Philosopher -
Georg Cantor Mathematician -
Gottfried Leibniz Mathematician -
Rene Descartes Philosopher -
Noam Chomsky Linguist -
Alfred North Whitehead Mathematician -
George Edward Moore Philosopher -
Kurt Gödel Logician