“In other words, a democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.”
More from Tocqueville on Politics
“The most dangerous moment for a bad government is when it begins to reform.”
“There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle.”
“A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.”
“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.”
Others on Politics
Otto von Bismarck
9 quotes“Political judgment is the ability to hear the distant hoofbeats of the horse of history.”
Charles de Gaulle
6 quotes“In politics it is necessary either to betray one's country or the electorate. I prefer to betray the electorate.”
H. L. Mencken
6 quotes“A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.”
Ronald Reagan
6 quotes“Democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man.”
Margaret Thatcher
4 quotes“The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money.”
George Orwell
4 quotes“Patriotism is usually stronger than class hatred, and always stronger than internationalism.”
Henry Adams
4 quotes“Practical politics consists in ignoring facts.”
FDR
3 quotes“Presidents are selected, not elected.”
John Kenneth Galbraith
2 quotes“Politics is the art of choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.”
Mark Twain
2 quotes“If voting made any difference they wouldn't let us do it.”
John le Carré
2 quotes“Tyranny is like the electric wiring in an old house. A tyrant dies, the new tyrant takes possession, and all he has to d...”
David Hume
2 quotes“The heights of popularity and patriotism are still the beaten road to power and tyranny.”