All THOMAS JEFFERSON Quotes about “Democracy”

“Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.”
“Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.”
“The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite.”
“The cornerstone of democracy rests on the foundation of an educated electorate.”
“Every man cannot have his way in all things. If his opinion prevails at some times, he should acquiesce on seeing that of others preponderate at other times. Without this mutual disposition we are disjointed individuals, but not a society.”
“A properly functioning democracy depends on an informed electorate.”
“An informed citizenry is at the heart of a dynamic democracy.”
“Difference of opinion leads to enquiry, and enquiry to truth; and I am sure...we both value too much the freedom of opinion sanctioned by our Constitution, not to cherish its exercise even where in opposition to ourselves.”
“It is my principle that the will of the majority should always prevail.”
“Democracy is 51% of the people taking away the rights of the other 49%.”
“It is the old practice of despots to use a part of the people to keep the rest in order.”
“That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part.”
“We are sensible of the duty and expediency of submitting our opinions to the will of the majority, and can wait with patience till they get right if they happen to be at any time wrong.”
“And where else will [Hume,] this degenerate son of science, this traitor to his fellow men, find the origin of just powers, if not in the majority of the society? Will it be in the minority? Or in an individual of that minority?”
“Liberty is to the collective body, what health is to every individual body. Without health no pleasure can be tasted by man; without liberty, no happiness can be enjoyed by society.”
“In a government bottomed on the will of all, the... liberty of every individual citizen becomes interesting to all.”
“Laws provide against injury from others; but not from ourselves.”
“A government is republican in proportion as every member composing it has his equal voice in the direction of its concerns, not indeed in person, which would be impracticable beyond the limits of a city or small township, but by representatives chosen by himself and responsible to him at short periods.”
“Let us in education dream of an aristocracy of achievement arising out of a democracy of opportunity”
“Where the law of the majority ceases to be acknowledged, there government ends; the law of the strongest takes its place, and life and property are his who can take them.”

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