Thomas Jefferson Quotes

A democratic government must always be left free to be operated upon by the will of the majority of the time being. All that the government of the day can do is to ascertain what now appears to be the best principle.

The law, the will of the majority expressed in orderly, constitutional methods, is the only king to which we bow.

… though the majority might be temporarily wrong, in the end, a majority that remained a majority over a period of years was usually right, and in our country, at least, we have been governed by the will of the majority. It has not meant, nor I surmise, does it mean in the present, the destruction of minorities …

Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time. It is the feeling of privacy in the voting booths, the feeling of communion in the libraries, the feeling of vitality everywhere.

Democracy is the right choice and is the greatest form of government ever created.

The primal principle of democracy is the worth and dignity of the individual.

A genuinely democratic Iraq might well act as a fresh spur.

My government will respect the will of the people.

Democracy for us tends to be has to do with who shouts the loudest!

The tendency of democracies is, in all things, to mediocrity.

Democracy is the form of government that gives every man the right to be his own oppressor.

Democracy means the opportunity to be everyone's slave.

Everything, everywhere, shall be decided by majority vote.

Any government is free to the people under it where the laws rule and the people are a party to the laws.

Democracy is nothing but the Tyranny of Majorities, the most abominable tyranny of all, for it is not based on the authority of a religion, not upon the nobility of a race, not on the merits of talents and of riches. It merely rests upon numbers and hides behind the name of the people.

A democrat need not believe that the majority will always reach a wise decision. He should however believe in the necessity of accepting the decision of the majority, be it wise or unwise, until such a time that the majority reaches another decision.

Notwithstanding the oppression and injustice experienced among us from democracy, the genius of the people is in favor of it, and the genius of the people must be consulted.

In democracies the people seem to act as they please.

The consent of the governed" is more than a safeguard against ignorant tyrants: it is an insurance against benevolent despots as well.

Ours is a constitutional freedom where the popular will is the law supreme and minorities are sacredly protected.

Democracy is the best revenge.

Democracy is messy.

In a democracy, you must follow the will of the majority, which may be right or wrong, moral or immoral, just or unjust. If that's the ruling of the majority that is what you should follow, respect, and obey — although you may continue to disagree with it.

The principle of democracy is a recognition of the sovereign, inalienable rights of man as a gift from God, the Source of law.

The majority prevails in a democracy, eventually.