Thomas Jefferson Quotes

Complaints are everywhere heard from our most considerate and virtuous citizens, equally the friends of public and private faith, and of public and personal liberty; that our governments are too unstable; that the public good is disregarded in the conflict of rival parties; and that measures are too often decided, not according to rules of justice, and the rights of the minor party; but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority....

The people never have and never will be able to understand how the will of a majority of the House of Representatives can be set aside by the judgment of a few men on a powerful committee.

In the United States, where the numerical majority have long been in full possession of collective despotism, they would probably be as unwilling to part with it as a single despot or an aristocracy.

The wisdom of the few may be the light of mankind, but the interest of the few is not the profit of mankind, nor of a commonwealth.

The public must find a way avoid the damage caused by a majority who neither has the ability or the desire to legislate.

In a democracy, there should be representation from every field.

Democracy is reproached with saying that the majority is always right. But progress says that the minority is always right.

Our Constitution does not profess to have been established simply by the majority, but by 'the people' - the minority as much as the majority.

In my view what you can't argue for is a system that is neither decisive nor proportional and can be indecisive and disproportionate at the same time.

The only moral Foundation of Government is the Consent of the People. But to what an Extent Shall We carry this Principle? Shall We Say, that every Individual of the Community, old and young, male and female, as well as rich and poor, must consent, expressly to every Act of Legislation? No, you will say. This is impossible. How then does the Right arise in the Majority to govern the Minority, against their Will? Whence arises the Right of the Men to govern Women, without their Consent? Whence the Right of the old to bind the Young, without theirs.

Logically, in a society ostensibly grounded on representative government, it would seem reasonable that a majority of the people in a State would elect a majority of that State’s legislators.

The conception of political equality can mean only one thing—one person–one vote.

We should not allow the minority to control the majority by requiring super majorities on budget related votes.

One man shall have one vote.

Being a member of the majority is more fulfilling than being a member of the majority.

In England, a Majority of Citizens does not elect the Majority of Representatives.

Under universal suffrage the elected are those who know best how to take in the masses. The minority, which may happen to be the half minus one, is sacrificed.

Proportional representation, I think, is fundamentally counter-democratic.

There must be some limits on the form of democracy. It can’t be winner take all.

The majority of people wherever found ought in all questions to govern the minority.

In this country, you don't have any democracy really. You have the right to elect but not to select. For example, here's two people: you get to vote for one of them. But you didn't choose in the first place either of them. That's not democracy…

Parliamentary government is simply a mild and disguised form of compulsion. We agree to try strength by counting heads instead of breaking heads, but the principle is exactly the same... The minority gives way not because it is convinced that it is wrong, but because it is convinced that it is a minority.

While Zinoviev is in the majority he is for iron discipline.... When he is in the minority... he is against it.

The ballot box is a license to govern, not a mandate to rule.

Common carriers exercise a sort of public office, and have duties to perform in which the public is interested.... Their business is, therefore, affected with a public interest