John Adams Quotes

There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.

For not only every democracy, but certainly every republic, bears within itself the seeds of its own destruction.

Democracy... while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.

A democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.

Democracy has generally failed in Africa because to much power, too often, was concentrated in the hands of too few.

In 54 years of its existence, Pakistan has not been able to find a workable model of democracy

As John Adams said, all democracies will eventually self-destruct. We seem to be doing it very quickly.

We have, essentially, a worthless democracy.

A democracy is a volcano which conceals the fiery materials of its own destruction. These will produce an eruption and carry desolation in their way.

No matter how hard we may try to revive Democracy, to help her once more stand on her legs, to breathe life into her, all efforts will be futile. All hopes for a victory of democracy over fascism are the crassest illusions.

The American system is no longer a democracy. Democracy is based on accountability and it's not there now.

Today in Russia, we have this extreme form of democracy, which is called anarchy.

Democracy is a fickle employer.

The U.S. military will be stepping into a morass. Iraq presents as unpromising a breeding ground for democracy as any in the world. It has never really known democracy or even legitimate, centralized rule for any great duration.

Every government of the world has the seeds of its own destruction in itself.

Overnight democracy will empower the poor, indigenous majority. What happens is that under those circumstances, democracy doesn't do what we expect it to do -- that is, reinforce markets. [Instead,] democracy leads to the emergence of manipulative politicians and demagogues who find that the best way to get votes is by scapegoating the minorities…. Markets benefit one ethnic group, democracy empowers a different ethnic majority, and the result is a lot of instability.

The best instituted governments carry in them the seeds of their own destruction; and though they grow and improve for a time, they will soon tend visibly to their dissolution. Every hour that they live is an hour less that they have to live.

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury

We are sliding down into the mire of a democracy ...

Liberalism is exhausted because it has become a corruption.

Democracy for people who are not used to it can undermine stability, resulting in war.

Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy. It is not true, in fact, and nowhere appears in history. Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of simple government, and when unchecked, produce the same effects of fraud, violence, and cruelty.

When are people going to learn? Democracy doesn't work.

Democracies are not very stable.

Democracy cannot sustain itself amid a high degree of violence.