A Quote by Voltaire

An ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.

Voltaire

Quote Topics

Assassination Democracy Form Government Ideal Tempered

Quote Author

Voltaire
French - Writer
November 21, 1694 - May 30, 1778

Tyranny is usually tempered with assassination, and Democracy must be tempered with culture. In the absence of this, it turns into a representation of collective folly.

John Stuart Mackenzie

The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.

Voltaire

I think Churchill is right, the only thing to be said for democracy is that there is nothing else that's any better, and therefore he used to say, Tyranny tempered by assassination, but lots of assassination. People say, If the Congress were more representative of the people it would be better. I say the Congress is too damn representative. It's just as stupid as the people are; just as uneducated, just as dumb, just as selfish.

Dean Acheson

Democracy becomes a government of bullies tempered by editors.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

It’s sad. Marxism didn’t work. Communism didn’t work. Capitalism doesn’t work. Nothing works. Even democracy doesn’t work. Democracy-the greatest form of government and we have two choices for who’s our leader. In fascism you only have one choice. That’s great. We have one more choice than the worst form of government.

Colin Quinn

Assassination on the scaffold is the worst form of assassination.

George Bernard Shaw

Joe and I are still very aware of the fact that we live in a country where he criticised the government and lived another day. That trumps all. To paraphrase Churchill, democracy is the worst form of government apart from all the other forms of government. You constantly have to fight for it; you have to keep your government honest.

Valerie Plame

Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those others that have been

Winston Churchill

Democracy is a form of government only because it is a form of moral and spiritual association.

John Dewey

The principles and form of government that form the basis of democracy are compatible with Islamic values.

Fethullah Gulen

Democracy is the worst form of government. It is the most inefficient, the most clumsy, the most unpractical.... It reduces wisdom to impotence and secures the triumph of folly, ignorance, clap-trap, and demagogy.... Yet democracy is the only form of social order that is admissible, because it is the only one consistent with justice.

Robert Briffault

Democracy is not a form of government. It is a political philosophy that can be embodied in various systems of government.

John Allen Fraser

Democracy is not a form of government, but a form of social organisation.

B. R. Ambedkar

The President proclaims war, and those Senators who dissent are not those who know better, but those who can afford to...Democracy becomes a government of bullies tempered by editors.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

I always assume that democracy is the only good form of government, quite frankly, and democracy is always to be preferred.