Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes
Democracy does not race, it reaches the finish slowly but surely.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749-1832, German poet & dramatist, Quoted on Democracy.RU, August 29, 2006
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3rd Earl Russell of Kingston
This line was used at his trial to show that he had communist tendencies. He and the 9 others refused to answer a Congressional Committee’s questions about their political beliefs and affiliations. Trumbo served a year in jail for Contempt of Congress and then was blacklisted for years, but he was so good that Otto Preminger broke the Blacklist and hired him whereupon he was employed in many of the major films. He had actually won an Academy Award writing under the name of Robert Rich.
The University Presidents had written to the American Public arguing that the German aggression was the result of the militarists in the German society dominating the people and pushing them to war. They argued that most German people were not really responsible. Lamprecht took exception and argued that the German policy was the democratic will of the majority of the German people. He claimed that Germany at the time was more of a de facto democracy than America—as the Untied States did not have a Voting Rights Act or any way of de facto ensuring that all citizens could vote—particularly Negroes in the South. While he was accurate about the voting aspects of a democracy, Germany neither had the Constitution nor a judiciary that was independent and co-equal to the executive and legislature, but Germany did not have the institutions with democratic traditions. The greatest embarrassment to modern Germans is that Adolf Hitler was actually elected by a majority of Germans and was very popular until things in Germany started to go poorly. This quotation is very important in that it shows the importance of a Constitution to limit the powers of even a popularly elected government.
Comment on the Election of President Putin.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, critic, and amateur artist. His works include: four novels; epic and lyric poetry; prose and verse dramas; memoirs; an autobiography; literary and aesthetic criticism; and treatises on botany, anatomy, and colour. He is considered to be the greatest German literary figure of the modern era.
