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Majority Quotes

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Majority Quotes

“In the struggle for supremacy the various political parties outdo each other in trickery, deceit, cunning, and shady machinations, confident that the one who succeeds is sure to be hailed by the majority as the victor. That is the only god--Success. As to what expense, what terrible cost to character, is of no moment.”

MomentsCharacterPoliticalPoliticsPartyStruggleTerribleCostSucceedMajorityVariousDeceitExpensesPolitical PartiesCunningSupremacyShadyTrickery
Book:Anarchism: Top Crime Collections
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“It is often asserted that as woman has always been man's slave--subject--inferior--dependent, under all forms of government and religion, slavery must be her normal condition. This might have some weight had not the vast majority of men also been enslaved for centuries to kings and popes, and orders of nobility, who, in the progress of civilization, have reached complete equality.”

MenGovernmentMightFormOrderWomenProgressConditionsSubjectsCenturyKingsCivilizationNormalWeightSlaveryMajoritySlaveDependentInferiorsPopeNobilityForms Of Government
Author:Susan B. Anthony
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“By outlawing Solidarity, a free trade organization to which an overwhelming majority of Polish workers and farmers belong, they have made it clear that they never had any intention of restoring one of the most elemental human rights the right to belong to a free trade union.”

HumansMadeClearRightsOrganizationTradeMajorityUnionsIntentionWorkersHuman RightsMade ItFarmersOverwhelmingSolidarityPolishFree TradeRestoringElementalsTrade Unions
Book:Ronald Reagan
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“People are mostly sane enough, of course, in the affairs of common life: the getting of food, shelter, and so on. But the moment they attempt any depth or generality of thought, they go mad almost infallibly. The vast majority, of course, adopt the local religious madness, as naturally as they adopt the local dress. But the more powerful minds will, equally infallibly, fall into the worship of some intelligent and dangerous lunatic, such as Plato, or Augustine, or Comte, or Hegel, or Marx.”

PeopleMindEnoughMomentsFallCoursesReligiousPowerfulCommonDangerousWorshipMadnessIntelligentDressesMadMajorityDepthAffairLocalsSaneShelterPlatoLunaticGeneralitiesHegelAugustineCommon LifePowerful Mind
Author:David Stove
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“This society in which knowledge workers dominate is in danger of a new "class conflict" between the large minority of knowledge workers and the majority of workers who will make their livings through traditional ways, either by manual work... or by service work. The productivity of knowledge work - still abysmally low - will predictably become the economic challenge of the knowledge society. On it will depend the ability of the knowledge society to give decent incomes, and with them dignity and status, to non knowledge people.”

PeopleWayGivingStillsChallengesAbilityClassEconomicDangerDependsConflictLowsDignityMajorityWorkersProductivityIncomeTraditionalDecentMinoritiesManualsThis SocietyKnowledge WorkersClass ConflictNew ClassManual Work
Author:Peter Drucker
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“There is a fundamental similarity between the persecution of individuals who engage in consenting homosexual activity in private, or who ingest, inject, or smoke various substances that alter their feelings and thoughts - and the traditional persecution of men for their religion... What all of these persecutions have in common is that the victims are harassed by the majority not because they engage in overtly aggressive or destructive acts... but because their conduct or appearance offends a group intolerant to and threatened by human differences.”

MenHumansFeelingsIndividualDifferencesCommonGroupsActivityVictimFundamentalsMajorityVariousAppearanceTraditionalSmokeSubstanceDestructiveAggressiveThreatenedHomosexualPersecutionSimilarity
Author:Thomas Szasz
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“A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects it does of necessity fly to anarchy or to despotism. Unanimity is impossible. The rule of a minority, as a permanent arrangement, is wholly inadmissible; so that, rejecting the majority principle, anarchy or despotism in some form is all that is left.”

PeopleDoeFormLeftOpinionPrinciplesImpossibleMajorityChecksLimitationPermanentMinoritiesRejectsSentimentsAnarchyArrangementsSovereignRestraintDeliberateDespotismRejectingPopular OpinionUnanimity
Book:Abraham Lincoln: Speeches & Writings Part 2: 1859-1865: Library of America #46
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“Received as I am by the members of a legislature the majority of whom do not agree with me in political sentiments, I trust that I may have their assistance in piloting the ship of state through this voyage, surrounded by perils as it is; for if it should suffer wreck now, there will be no pilot ever needed for another voyage.”

IfsShouldMayStatesPoliticalSufferingNeededMembersAgreeMajorityShipsSentimentsPilotsAssistancePerilWrecksVoyagesLegislature
Book:The Complete Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln (Biographically Annotated Edition)
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“Perhaps it will be found that to obtain a just republic (and it is to secure our just rights that we resort to government at all) it must be so extensive as that local egoisms may never reach its greater part; that on every particular question, a majority may be found in its councils free from particular interests, and giving, therefore, an uniform prevalence to the principles of justice.”

GivingMayGovernmentFoundInterestJusticePrinciplesGreaterRightsParticularMajorityLocalsSecureRepublicUniformsCouncilResortsEgoism
Book:The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence 1793-1798
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“I agree that marijuana laws are overdue for an overhaul. I also favor the medical use of marijuana -- if it's prescribed by a physician. I cannot understand why the federal government should interfere with the doctor-patient relationship, nor why it would ignore the will of a majority of voters who have legally approved such legislation.”

IfsShouldUseGovernmentLawDoctorsAgreeMajorityPatientMedicalFavorsVotersMarijuanaPhysiciansInterfereLegislationFederal GovernmentProhibitionApprovedOverdue
Author:Abigail Van Buren
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“In early times, the great majority of the male sex were slaves, as well as the whole of the female. And many ages elapsed, some of them ages of high cultivation, before any thinker was bold enough to question the rightfulness, and the absolute social necessity, either of the one slavery or of the other.”

WellsEnoughWholeAgeSocialSexFemaleAbsolutesSlaveryMajoritySlaveMalesThinkerCultivation
Book:The Subjection of Women: Mill's Works
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“We have this sacred cow in our society that what the majority of people want is right—but is it? Our populace can't really be informed, not the majority of them—most people vote the way they have been manipulated and by the way they have responded to that manipulation—they are working out their own patterns of wishful thinking on the social environment in which they live.”

PeopleThinkingWayWantHas BeensSocialEnvironmentVoteSacredMajorityPatternsWork OutOur SocietyManipulationCowsWishful ThinkingSacred CowsSocial Environment
Author:David Gerrold
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“Those in authority within institutions and social structures attempt to justify their rule by linking it, as if it were a necessary consequence, with moral symbols, sacred emblems, or legal formulae which are widely believed and deeply internalized. These central conceptions may refer to a god or gods, the 'votes of the majority,' the 'will of the people,' the 'aristocracy of talents or wealth,' to the 'divine right of kings' or to the alleged extraordinary endowment of the person of the ruler himself.”

PeopleIfsMayPersonsSocialWealthMoralTalentDivineKingsAuthorityConsequenceVoteInstitutionsSacredMajorityStructureExtraordinarySymbolsJustifyConceptionRulersAristocracyEndowmentEmblemsSocial StructureDivine RightDivine Right Of Kings
Author:C. Wright Mills
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“By denying people's sense of visual beauty in painting and sculpture , melody in music , meter and rhyme in poetry , plot and narrative and character in fiction , the elite arts wrote off the vast majority of their audience . They purposely excluded people who approach art in part for pleasure and edification in favour of social one-upmanship and an ever-narrowing, in-crowd elite.”

PeopleArtCharacterSocialPleasureFictionAudiencePaintingApproachMajorityCrowdsNarrativeVisualsPlotMelodyElitesRhymeFavourSculptureMeterExcludedElitismEdification
Author:Steven Pinker
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“I am dedicating the majority of my wealth to improving education. It is the key to the survival of the human race. We have to plan for our collective future - and the first step begins with the social, emotional, and intellectual tools we provide to our children. As humans, our greatest tool for survival is our ability to think and to adapt - as educators, storytellers, and communicators our responsibility is to continue to do so.”

ThinkingFirstsHumansChildrenSocialWealthAbilityRaceResponsibilityStepsPlansEmotionalKeysSurvivalIntellectualToolsOur ChildrenMajorityHuman RaceCollectivesFirst StepsImprovingStorytellerEducatorCommunicators
Author:George Lucas
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“It seems that it is impossible to live without discovering the purpose of your life. And the first thing which a person should do is to understand the meaning of life. But the majority of people who consider themselves to be educated are proud that they have reached such great height that they cease to care about the meaning of existence.”

PeopleShouldFirstsPersonsSeemsCarePurposeExistenceImpossibleProudMajorityCeaseEducatedHeightMeaning Of LifeDiscoveringGreat Heights
Author:Leo Tolstoy
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“Though it is disguised by the illusion that a bureaucracy accountable to a majority of voters, and susceptible to the pressure of organized minorities, is not exercising compulsion, it is evident that the more varied and comprehensive the regulation becomes, the more the state becomes a despotic power as against the individual. For the fragment of control over the government which he exercises through his vote is in no effective sense proportionate to the authority exercised over him by the government.”

StatesGovernmentIndividualExerciseAuthorityIllusionVotePressureMajorityOrganizedMinoritiesVotersRegulationEvidentBureaucracyFragmentsCompulsionComprehensiveSusceptible
Author:Walter Lippmann
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“The main thing is to have a soul that loves the truth and harbours it where he finds it. And another thing: truth requires constant repetition, because error is being preached about us all the time, and not only by isolated individuals but by the masses. In the newspapers and encyclopedias, in schools and universities, everywhere error rides high and basks in the consciousness of having the majority on its side.”

SoulTruthSchoolIndividualSidesEducationConsciousnessMassMajorityConstantErrorsUniversityNewspapersPropagandaIsolatedRepetitionEncyclopediaHarbour
Author:Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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“If the minority, and a small one too, is suffered to dictate to the majority, after measures have undergone the most solemn discussions by the representatives of the people, and their will through this medium is enacted into a law, there can be no security for life, liberty, or property; nor, if the laws are not to govern, can any man know how to conduct himself in safety.”

PeopleIfsKnowsMenLawLibertyKnow HowSecuritySafetyMajorityPropertyMediumsDiscussionMinoritiesRepresentativesSolemn
Book:The Writings of George Washington: pt. IV. Letters official and private, from the beginning of his presidency to the end of his life: (v. 10) May, 1789-November, 1794. (v. 11) November, 1794-December, 1799
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“The difference between a pessimistic and an optimistic mind is of such controlling importance in regard to every intellectual function, and especially for the conduct of life, that it is out of the question to admit that both are normal, and the great majority of mankind are naturally optimistic.”

MindDifferencesMankindNormalIntellectualFunctionImportanceRegardMajorityOptimisticPessimistic
Book:Selected Writings (Values in a Universe of Chance)
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“American literature has been, and is, singularly deficient in established critics who have anything like a rational conception of their jobs. The majority, initiate in a few of the patent rituals of Aristotle and Quintilian, don the forbidding robes of high priests to Sweetness and Light, and go about their business much as if the idea were to keep all they know to themselves.”

IfsKnowsHas BeensIdeasLightJobsLiteratureMajorityCriticsRationalPriestsConceptionRitualSweetnessRobesPatentsInitiateAmerican Literature
Author:Burton Rascoe
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“Absolutely. I think, I think the American people, at their core, are a decent people. I think that we still have prejudice in our midst, but I think that the vast majority of Americans are willing, are willing to judge people on the basis of their ideas and their character. And in the case of the presidency, I think what's most important is whether the American people think that you understand their hopes and dreams and struggles and whether they think you can actually help them achieve those hopes and dreams.”

PeopleThinkingKnowsStillsImportantIdeasCharacterHelpingDreamCasesStruggleAchieveWillingJudgingBasesPrejudiceMajorityCoreDecentMidstPresidencyHopes And Dreams
Author:Barack Obama
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“The ethical regime [of the Jews] was quite definitely Ptolemaic, revolving around the small group of Jews, not the larger Gentile group and, accordingly, they learned to remain unimpressed by Gentile temporal power. Being unimpressed did not mean being unafraid material power might beat or starve one to death; it did mean refusing to surrender moral hegemony to the majority merely because it had power.”

MeanMightMoralGroupsMaterialsBeatsMajorityJewSurrenderEthicalRegimesSmall GroupsUnafraidHegemonyGentilesRevolving
Author:David Riesman
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“The appeal of the spectrally macabre is generally narrow because it demands from the reader a certain degree of imagination and a capacity for detachment from every-day life. Relatively few are free enough from the spell of the daily routine to respond to rappings from outside, and tales of ordinary feelings and events, or of common sentimental distortions of such feelings and events, will always take first place in the taste of the majority; rightly, perhaps, since of course these ordinary matters make up the greater part of human experience.”

FirstsHumansMatterEnoughFeelingsCertainCoursesImaginationCommonGreaterEventsReaderTasteDemandDegreesOrdinaryCapacityMajorityRapTalesAppealsRoutineSpellsSentimentalHuman ExperienceDetachmentDistortionDay LifeDaily RoutinesMacabre
Book:H.P. Lovecraft: The Ultimate Collection (160 Works Including Early Writings, Fiction, Collaborations, Poetry, Essays & Bonus Audiobook Links)
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“True majorities, in a TV-dominated and anti-intellectual age, may need sound bites and flashing lights and I am not against supplying such lures if they draw children into even a transient concern with science. But every classroom has one [Oliver] Sacks , one [Eric] Korn, or one [Jonathan] Miller , usually a lonely child with a passionate curiosity about nature, and a zeal that overcomes pressures for conformity. Do not the one in fifty deserve their institutions as well magic places, like cabinet museums, that can spark the rare flames of genius?”

IfsNeedsWellsMayChildrenLightAgeSoundMagicTvsGeniusIntellectualDrawsDeserveConcernLonelyOvercomingPressureInstitutionsMajorityCuriosityPassionateFlamesFiftyConformityMuseumsBitesSparksClassroomZealCabinetsTransientEricLureSound BitesFlashing LightsLonely Child
Book:Dinosaur in a haystack: reflections in natural history
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