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Majority Quotes

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Majority Quotes

“I don't know if it's cool to say this anymore, but I grew up listening to Gary Glitter. A majority of his songs were in that shuffle-blues beat, and I think that's probably why I tend to write like that.”

Ifs Thinking Knows Writing Song Listening Grew Grew Up Beats Majority Glitter Gary Shuffle

Author:Martin Gore

“The humanitarian wishes to be a prime mover in the lives of others. He cannot admit either the divine or the natural order, by which men have the power to help themselves. The humanitarian puts himself in the place of God. But he is confronted by two awkward facts; first, that the competent do not need his assistance; and second, that the majority of people positively do not want to be "done good" by the humanitarian. Of course, what the humanitarian actually proposes is that he shall do what he thinks is good for everybody. It is at this point that the humanitarian sets up the guillotine.”

“What is supposed to happen in a democracy is that each sovereign citizen will always vote in the public interest for the safety and welfare of all. But what does happen is that he votes his own self-interest as he sees it... which for the majority translates as 'Bread and Circuses'.”

Doe Self Happens Interest Democracy Citizens Vote Safety Majority Bread Welfare Translate Sovereign Circus Self Interest Public Interest Bread And Circuses

Author:Robert A. Heinlein

“In the long run even the most despotic governments with all their brutality and cruelty are no match for ideas. Eventually the ideology that has won the support of the majority will prevail and cut the ground from under the tyrant's feet. Then the oppressed many will rise in rebellion and overthrow their masters.”

Long Ideas Government Running Support Cutting Feet Masters Majority Cruelty Ideology Rebellion Tyrants Long Runs Oppressed Brutality

Book:An Interpretation of Social and Economic Evolution: The Economist

Source: An Interpretation of Social and Economic Evolution: The Economist

“The Los Angeles Air Pollution Control Board is established in 1946 in an effort to discover the cause of the brown cloud hanging over the city and decide how to combat and disperse it. In 1949, after intense lobbying from both the automobile and oil industries, and against the recommendations and position of the Los Angeles Air Pollution Control Board, the public rail system, which at one time was the largest in the world, and still serves a majority of the city's population, is decommissioned and torn out. It is replaced by a small fleet of buses.”

Source: Bright Shiny Morning

“Simply put, ObamaCare cost Americans jobs through uncertainty and now implementation threatens even more jobs. No wonder the majority of Americans continue to oppose it.”

Jobs Wonder Cost Majority Uncertainty Obamacare Implementation

Author:Pete Sessions

“Justice, not the majority, should rule.”

Should Justice Majority

Author:Christian Nestell Bovee

“Liberalism is that principle of political rights, according to which the public authority, in spite of being all-powerful, limits itself and attempts, even at ist own expense, to leave room in the state over which it rules for those to live who neither think nor feel as it does, that is to say as do the stronger, the majority.”

Thinking Feels Doe States Political Rooms Powerful Principles Rights Limits Authority Stronger Majority Liberalism Spite Expenses Political Rights

Author:Jose Ortega y Gasset

“The majority of women have no principles of their own; they are guided by the heart, and depend for their own conduct, upon that of the men they love.”

Men Heart Women Principles He Man Depends Majority

Author:Jean de la Bruyere

“Kings are for nations in their swaddling-clothes: France has attained her majority.”

Nations Kings Clothes Majority France

Author:Victor Hugo

“scarcely a human being in the course of history has fallen to a woman's rifle; the vast majority of birds and beasts have been killed by you, not by us. Obviously there is for you some glory, some necessity, some satisfaction in fighting which we have never felt or enjoyed.”

Humans Has Beens Fighting Courses Felt Human Beings Violence Glory Bird Majority Satisfaction Enjoyed Fallen Beast Rifles

Book:Three Guineas (Annotated)

Source: Three Guineas (Annotated)

“In the last 25 years, we've convinced ourselves and a majority of the country that women can do what men can do. Now we have to convince the majority of the country - and ourselves - that men can do what women can do. ... Let's face it: until men are fully equal inside the home, women will never be really equal outside it.”

Men Years Country Home Lasts Faces Can Do Equal Majority Equality Convinced Convince

Author:Gloria Steinem

“What frightens me about America today is that in the large majority there is no active sense of the value of the individual: few citizens feel that they are the Republic, responsible for what happens. And when the individual in a democracy ceases to feel his importance, then there is grave danger that he will give over his freedom, if not to a Fascist State, then to the advertising men or Publicity Agents or to the newspaper he happens to read.”

“Progress begins with the minority. It is completed by persuading the majority, by showing the reason and the of the step forward, and that is accomplished by appealing to the intelligence of the majority.”

Reason Steps Progress Majority Accomplished Minorities Steps Forward Persuading

Author:George William Curtis

“What generally passes for 'thought' among the majority of mankind is the time one takes out to rearrange one's prejudices.”

Thinking Mankind Prejudice Majority

Author:Clare Boothe Luce

“The laughers are a majority.”

Laughter Majority

Author:Alexander Pope

“Children, together with women, constitute 90 percent of all refugee populations on the planet as well as the vast majority of those living in absolute poverty: the 'feminization of poverty' means that children are poor, too, since most parenting is done by mothers.”

Wells Mean Children Done Together Mother Poor Poverty Planets Percent Absolutes Majority Population Refugee

Book:Saturday's Child: A Memoir

Source: Saturday's Child: A Memoir

“the overwhelming majority of people who are engaged in the processes of thought and expression are Democrats because the essence of thought is exploration and diversity and change. It's impossible to have vision in art or government without risk, or the boldness and courage which produce risk. And this - in spite of what they call modern Republicanism - is the antithesis of true Republican thinking.”

“The majority of human beings do not turn to God because they have not enough happiness but because happiness is not enough.”

Humans Enough God Turns Human Beings Majority Turn To God

Book:Three Ways Home

Source: Three Ways Home

“the most sacred business of judges is not to ratify the will of the majority but to protect the minority from its tyranny.”

Justice Judging Protect Sacred Majority Tyranny Minorities

Author:Anna Quindlen

“A decline in the national housing price level would need to be substantial to trigger a significant rise in foreclosures, because the vast majority of homeowners have built up substantial equity in their homes despite large mortgage-market financed withdrawals of home equity in recent years.”

Needs Years Home Levels Built Majority Significant Despite Decline Equity Housing Triggers Mortgage Withdrawal Homeowners Foreclosure Home Equity

Author:Alan Greenspan

“The teachers of small children are paid more than they were, but still far less than the importance of their work deserves, and they are still regarded by the unenlightened majority as insignificant compared to those who impart information to older children and adolescents, a class of pupils which, in the nature of things, is vastly more able to protect its own individuality from the character of the teacher.”

Children Stills Character Able Education Class Teacher Teaching Information Protect Deserve Importance Paid Majority Individuality Insignificant Pupils Impart Small Child

Book:A Montessori Mother

Source: A Montessori Mother

“We [on the left] have to be used to being a minority -- a small minority -- for some time to come. The odd thing is that the right, even when it is in power, likes to think of itself as an embattled minority against this elite that somehow runs everything. Whereas the left, even when it has no power at all, likes to imagine it somehow represents the majority of people. These are mirror-image delusions.”

People Thinking Running Used Left Imagine Mirrors Majority Likes Odd Minorities Delusion Elites Odd Things Mirror Image

Author:Barbara Ehrenreich

“This is what happens when the discourse of publishing, defined and driven by spoken and written language, is talked about in exactly the same vocabulary and syntax as any widgetmaking industry. Books are reformulated as 'product' - like screwdrivers or flea-bombs or soap - and the majority of writers are perceived as typists with bad attitudes.”

Book Happens Language Attitude Written Products Industry Majority Driven Defined Bombs Publishing Discourse Vocabulary Soap Fleas Bad Attitude Syntax Written Language Screwdrivers

Author:Suzette Haden Elgin

“The majority is wicked.”

Majority Wicked Wickedness

Author:Bias of Priene

“Here is a myth for you if myths are your pleasure: "There is no more opportunity in this world." Most people held this false belief fifty years ago, the majority agreed with it five years ago, and practically everyone clings to it today. Clearly, this myth will also be the screaming rage in the future. Hang on to this myth, and you are destined to miss great opportunities for the rest of your life.”

People Ifs World Years Today Opportunity Belief Pleasure Five Missing This World Years Ago Majority Myth Rage Five Years Fifty Destined Rest Of Your Life Great Opportunity

Author:Ernie J Zelinski

“...Freedom arises from the multiplicity of sects, which prevades America and which is the best and only security for religious liberty in any society. For where there is such a variety of sects, there cannot be a majority of any one sect to oppress and persecute the rest.”

America Religion Religious Liberty Security Majority Arise Variety Sects Multiplicity Religious Liberty

Book:The Debates in the Several State Conventions, on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution: As Recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia, in 1787. Together with the Journal of the Federal Convention, Luther Martin's Letter, Yates' Minutes, Congressional Opinions, Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of '98-'99, and Other Illustrations of the Constitution

Source: The Debates in the Several State Conventions, on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution: As Recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia, in 1787. Together with the Journal of the Federal Convention, Luther Martin's Letter, Yates' Minutes, Congressional Opinions, Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of '98-'99, and Other Illustrations of the Constitution

“The efforts of the majority to destroy every trace of heretical 'blasphemy' proved so successful that, until the discoveries at Nag Hammadi, nearly all our information concerning alternative forms of early Christianity came from the massive orthodox attacks upon them.”

Form Religion Effort Christianity Successful Information Discovery Majority Alternatives Orthodox Massive Blasphemy

Book:The Gnostic Gospels

Source: The Gnostic Gospels

“All photographs are about light. The great majority of photographs record light as a way of describing objects in space. A few photographs are less about objects and more about the space that contains them. Still fewer photographs are about light itself.”

Way Stills Light Space Records Objects Majority Photographer Photograph Fewer Describing

Author:John Paul Caponigro

“The programs that have been discussed over the last couple days in the press are secret in the sense that they are classified but they are not secret in the sense that when it comes to phone calls every member of Congress has been briefed on this program. With respect to all these programs the relevant intelligence committees are fully briefed on these programs. These are programs that have been authorized by broad bipartisan majorities repeatedly since 2006.”

Has Beens Lasts Secret Couple Members Program Majority Presses Congress Phones Broads Relevant Committees Phone Calls Nsa Bipartisan

Author:Barack Obama

“I find that the great majority of public servants across the entire political spectrum come because they believe in the United States and they want to change the world.”

World Want Believe States Political United United States Majority Servant Changing The World Spectrum Public Servants Political Spectrum

Author:Condoleezza Rice

“What was the use of trying to expound a truth, if the majority preferred a lie?”

Ifs Trying Use Truth Lying Majority

Book:The Master Christian

Source: The Master Christian

“Civilization has imposed countless restrictions and conventions on each of us, with the result that the subconscious in the majority of us has become a storage room without a key. We are forced to suppress or forget so many events and ideas and thoughts that those to which we should have access are lost in the welter. However, there are people who seem capable of unlocking this part of their minds and extracting relevant information.”

Source: The weak-eyed bat

“A fatal defect in majority rule is that by its very nature it abolishes itself. Majority rule must inevitably become minority rule: the majority is too big to handle itself; it organizes itself into committees ... which in their turn resolve themselves into a committee of one.”

Bigs Turns Democracy Majority Handle Minorities Resolve Organize Committees Defects Abolish Majority Rule

Book:The New State: Group Organization the Solution of Popular Government

Source: The New State: Group Organization the Solution of Popular Government

“The great majority of men use their own short-sighted ideas as a yardstick for measuring the divine omnipotence.”

Men Ideas Use Divine Majority Measuring Omnipotence Short Sighted Yardsticks

Author:Therese of Lisieux

“The real transgression occurs when religion wants government to tell citizens how to live uniquely personal parts of their lives. The failure of Prohibition proves the futility of such an attempt when a majority or even a substantial minority happens to disagree. Some questions may be inherently individual ones, or people may be sharply divided about whether they are. In such cases, like Prohibition and abortion, the proper role of religion is to appeal to the conscience of the individual, not the coercive power of the state.”

People Want May Real States Government Happens Individual Roles Cases Citizens Prove Conscience Majority Appeals Abortion Minorities Divided Disagree Prohibition Futility Transgression

Author:Edward Kennedy

“It is the curse of minorities in this power-worshipping world that either from fear or from an uncertain policy of expedience they distrust their own standards and hesitate to give voice to their deeper convictions, submitting supinely to estimates and characterizations of themselves as handed down by a not unprejudiced dominant majority.”

World Giving Voice Policy Standards Prejudice Majority Conviction Deeper Discrimination Oppression Curse Minorities Uncertain Dominant Distrust Characterization Expedience

Book:A Voice from the South

Source: A Voice from the South

“Trading has taught me not to take the conventional wisdom for granted. What money I made in trading is testimony to the fact that the majority is wrong a lot of the time. The vast majority is wrong even more of the time. I've learned that markets, which are often just mad crowds, are often irrational; when emotionally overwrought, they're almost always wrong.”

Made Facts Taught Mad Majority Crowds Granted I've Learned Conventional Irrational Testimony Trading Conventional Wisdom Always Wrong

Author:Richard Dennis

“People who are against hate are not a fringe minority, not even a silent majority, but are a silenced majority, silenced by the corporate media.”

People Hate Media Majority Silent Corporate Minorities Fringe Silent Majority

Author:Amy Goodman

“Do you see any majority, anywhere, in this imperfect and irreligious world, admitting that the minority is precious? That any minority is precious?”

World Majority Minorities Imperfect Admitting

Book:Modes and Morals

Source: Modes and Morals

“Today, for many people, being a union member simply means paying dues, but in the early days there were so few of us that if a majority of the members were not active, the union ceased to exist.”

People Ifs Mean Today Members Labor Majority Unions Active Dues Labor Movement

Book:All for one

Source: All for one

“the majority of critical, and plenty of uncritical, readers find quotations a bore.”

Reader Majority Critical Plenty Bores Quotations

Book:Streaks of life

Source: Streaks of life

“Self-censorship as a result of intimidation or social pressures, sometimes referred to as "political correctness", constitutes a serious obstacle to the proper functioning of democracy. It is important to hear the views of all persons,including the "silent majority", and to give heed to the weaker voices.”

“Democracy entails a correlation between the public interest as expressed by a majority of the population and the governmental policies that affect them. The term encompasses various manifestations, including direct, participatory and representative democracy, but Governments must be responsive to people and not to special interests such as the military-industrial complex, financial bankers and transnational corporations. Democracy is inclusive and does not privilege an anthropological aristocracy.”

“I got a flash of ... what it means, now, 'you can't be too rich or too thin.' How well it works, will keep on working, because the vast majority of women will never be thin. Thin enough. How well the hope of class mobility keeps every mother dieting, and handing the diets down to her daughter, hoping the daughter may do even better. When you combine this with the fact that many non-white peoples tend to be heavier than white folks, dieting becomes a tool not only in enforcing class but in encouraging assimilation.”

Wells May Mean Enough Facts Mother Women White Class Rich Daughter Tools Weight Majority Folks Diets Flash Assimilation Dieting Mobility

Author:Elana Dykewomon

“marrows - alas! - are arriving in a steady stream at the back door. ... Oddly enough, the majority of people who grow them in Fairacre say, as they hand them over: 'Funny thing! I don't care for them myself. In fact, none of the family likes them!' But still they plant them. It must be the fascination of seeing such a wonderful return for one small seed, that keeps marrow-growers at their dubious task.”

“Wars results in immediate deaths and destruction, but the environmental consequences can last hundreds, often thousands of years. And it is not just war itself that undermines our life support system, but also the research and development, military exercises and general preparations for battle that are carried out on a daily basis in most parts of the world. The majority of this pre-war activity takes place without the benefit of civilian scrutiny and therefore we are unaware of some of what is being done to our environment in the name of 'security.”

Source: Planet Earth: The Latest Weapon of War

“Congress hasn't declared war on the countries - the majority of them are our allies - but without asking for public permission, NSA is running network operations against them that affect millions of innocent people. And for what? So we can have secret access to a computer in a country we're not even fighting?”

People War Country Running Fighting Secret Millions Computer Asking Majority Congress Access Innocent Operations Allies Permission Nsa

Author:Edward Snowden

“I would not be running for President if I didn't believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation - the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.”

“Large enterprises make the few rich, but the majority prosper only through the carefulness and detail of thrift.”

Rich Majority Details Enterprise Thrift Carefulness

Author:Theodore T. Munger