Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security, or the rights of property; have in general been as short in their lives as they are violent in their deaths. - James Madison
Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man. - Bertrand Russell
The tendencies of democracies are, in all things, to mediocrity, since the tastes, knowledge and principles of the majority form the tribunal of the appeal. - James Fenimore Cooper
Democracies are indeed slow to make war, but once embarked upon a martial venture are equally slow to make peace and reluctant to make a tolerable, rather than a vindictive, peace. - Reinhold Niebuhr
Globally, democracies have also acted in ways that suggest an outright renunciation of their principles at home. - Nayef Al-Rodhan