The End

If we will listen to the judgment of those who should best know the nature of popular government, we shall find no reason for good men to desire or choose it. Xenophon, that brave scholar and soldier, disallowed the Athenian commonweal for that they followed that form of government wherein the wicked are always in greatest credit, and virtuous men kept under. They expelled Aristides the Just; Themistocles died in banishment; Miltiades in prison; Phocion, the most virtuous and just man of his age, though he had been chosen forty-five times to be their general, yet he was put to death with all his friends, kindred, and servants, by the fury of the people, without sentence, accusation, or any cause at all.

- Sir Robert Filmer, Patriarcha.

Bailout (I wish I could)

If Paulson had proposed spending $700 billion to blow up the moon in order to save the economy, Democrats would hesitate unless some of the money were routed to ACORN, Republicans would refuse unless a few tax cuts were sprinkled in. That something might be done other than blowing up the moon would not occur to the lot of them.

Less than zero would be more accurate

"The Public is an old woman. Let her maunder and mumble." - Thomas Carlyle

"Democracy is, by the nature of it, a self-canceling business; and it gives in the long run a net result of zero." - Thomas Carlyle

Political science

Democracy: rule by incompetents chosen by imbeciles.

Democratic sentiments

Compressing the idea into one syllable, Hamilton at a New York dinner replied to some democratic sentiment by striking his hand sharply on the table and saying: “Your people, sir—your people is a great beast.”

– Henry Adams, History of the United States of America During the First Administration of Thomas Jefferson.