Benjamin Rush Quotes

Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms.

A country can live under a monarchy or a republic, with a parliamentary or a presidential system, under communism or fascism. But it cannot live in anarchy.

A pure democracy is generally a very bad government, It is often the most tyrannical government on earth; for a multitude is often rash, and will not hear reason.

Just as a royal rule, if not a mere name, must exist by virtue of some great personal superiority in the king, so tyranny, which is the worst of governments, is necessarily the farthest removed from a well-constituted form; oligarchy is little better, for it is a long way from aristocracy, and democracy is the most tolerable of the three.

There are three species of government: republican, monarchical, and despotic.

… the meanest and worst of all forms of government

The truth is that neither then nor at any former time, since I had attained my maturity in Age, Reading and reflection had I imbibed any general Prejudice against Kings, or in favour of them. It appeared to me then as it has done ever since, that there is a State of Society in which a Republican Government is the best, and in America the only one.

The worst of all states is the people's state.

I have long been convinced that institutions purely democratic must, sooner or later, destroy liberty, or civilization, or both….

The revolutionary government is the despotism of liberty

You can choose whatever name you like for the two types of government. I personally call the type of government which can be removed without violence democracy, and the other tyranny.

It is important to remember there still exist other forms of government in the world today, and that dozens of foreign countries still long for a democracy such as ours to be imposed on them..

There's not a system better than another. There are some people better than others. I'm not anti-democracy, but there's no real system yet that has proven itself to be the right one.

But our perfect democracy, which neither needs nor particularly wants voters, is a rarity. It is important to remember there still exist many other forms of government in the world today, and that dozens of foreign governments still long for a democracy such as ours to be imposed on them.

A democratic despotism is like a theocracy: it assumes its own correctness.

Democracy is a very bad form of government ... but all the others are so much worse.

Democracy, I do not conceive that ever God did ordain as a fit government either for church or commonwealth. If the people be governors, who shall be governed?

Despotism subjects a nation to one tyrant; democracy, to many.

My message is simple - freedom works a lot better than the authoritarian style of government.

Those who abhors democracy would rarely immigrate to an authoritarian state if they have to.

It is not good to have a rule of many.

Freedom only for the members of the government, only for the members of the Party - though they are quite numerous - is no freedom at all.

They (who) seek to establish systems of government based on the regimentation of all human beings by a handful of individual rulers … call this a new order. It is not new and it is not order.

It depends on the consent of the people to decide whether kings or counsuls or other magistrates are to be established in authority over them, and if there is a legitimate cause, the people can change a kingdom into an aristocracy or an aristocracy into a democracy, and vice versa.

Which is better, to be ruled by one tyrant three thousand miles away, or by three thousand tyrants not a mile away?