Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Astute and Relevant Historical Observations

Remember democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.
. . . John Adams, letter to John Taylor, 1814

[D]emocracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security, or the rights of property; and have, in general, been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.
. . . James Madison, Federalist No. 10, 1787 


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