William Hazlitt
on democracy:
What is the
People? And who are you that ask the question? One of the people.
And yet you would be something! Then you would not have the People
nothing. For what is the People? Millions of men, like you, with
hearts beating in their bosoms, with thought stirring in their minds,
with the blood circulating in their veins, with wants and appetites,
and passions and anxious cares, and busy purposes and affections for
others and a respect for themselves, and a desire of happiness, and a
right to freedom, and a will to be free. And yet you would tear out
the might heart of a nation, and lay it bare and bleeding at the foot
of despotism: you would slay the mind of a country to fill up the
void with the old, obscene, driveling prejudices of superstition and
tyranny: you would tread out the eye of liberty (the light of
nations) like a vile jelly, that mankind may be led about darkling to
its endless drudgery, like the Hebrew Samson (shorn of his strength
and blind) by his insulting taskmasters.
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