Pope Benedict XVI Quotes

Democracy is the fig leaf of elitism.

Let the people think they govern and they will be governed.

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

Democracy is politics.

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

I have often been before and am now convinced that a democracy is incapable of empire...

The majority prevails in a democracy, eventually.

… 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 a good client.

Being 'at the mercy of legislative majorities' is merely another way of describing the basic American plan: representative democracy.

All free governments are managed by the combined wisdom and folly of the people.

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

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.

'Democratic' in its original meaning refers to unlimited majority rule....a social system in which one's work, one's property, one's mind, and one's life are at the mercy of any gang that may muster the vote of a majority at any moment for any purpose

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.

The deputies of the people should not and cannot be the people's representatives, they can only be its servants.... The moment that people give power to their representatives, they abdicate their liberty.

Democracy is far more complex than simply choosing the people who govern you.

Towering over Presidents and State Governors, over Congress and State Legislatures, over conventions and the vast machinery of party, public opinion stands out in the United States, as the great source of Power.

Decision by majorities is as much an expedient as lighting by gas.

They which find themselves grieved under a democracy, call it anarchy.

The people who own the country ought to govern it.

All authority belongs to the people.

Democracy is very powerful but very fragile.

American democracy must be a failure because it places the supreme authority in the hands of the most ignorant part of society.

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.