The most important lesson in the writing trade is that any manuscript is improved if you cut away the fat.
Robert A. HeinleinRead
Democracy is four wolves and a sheep voting on dinner.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote illustrates the potential tyranny of the majority in a democracy.
Robert A. Heinlein's quote compares democracy to a scenario where the interests of a few dominant wolves outweigh those of an individual sheep, highlighting the risk that majority rule can lead to the oppression of minority groups. In essence, it serves as a cautionary reminder of how democratic processes can be manipulated or result in decisions that favor the powerful over the vulnerable.
Themes
DemocracyTyrannyMajorityMinorityPolitics
In practice
Example use cases
During a political debate to illustrate the need for protecting minority rights.
More from Robert A. Heinlein
All quotes βAn armed society is a polite society.
Robert A. HeinleinRead
Democracy is a poor system of government at best; the only thing that can honestly be said in its favor is that it is eight times as good as any other method the human race has ever tried.
Robert A. HeinleinRead
Long human words (the longer the better) were easy, unmistakable, and rarely changed their meanings . . . but short words were slippery, unpredictable, changing their meanings without any pattern.
Robert A. HeinleinRead
Progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things.
Robert A. HeinleinRead
When a place gets crowded enough to require ID's, social collapse is not far away. It is time to go elsewhere. The best thing about space travel is that it made it possible to go elsewhere.
Robert A. HeinleinRead
Similar quotes
When Paris sneezes, Europe catches a cold.
Klemens Von MetternichRead
It would seem that the Watergate story from beginning to end could be used as a primer on the American political system.
Bob WoodwardRead
In a democracy, citizens pass judgment on their government, and if they are kept in the dark about what their government is doing, they cannot be in a position to make well-grounded decisions.
Peter SingerRead
People in debt become hopeless and hopeless people don't vote. They always say that that everyone should vote but I think that if the poor in Britain or the United States turned out and voted for people that represented their interests there would be a real democratic revolution.
Tony BennRead
I am a freeman, an American, a United States Senator, and a Democrat, in that order.
Lyndon B. JohnsonRead
The organized workers of America, free in their industrial life, conscious partners in production, secure in their homes and enjoying a decent standard of living, will prove the finest bulwark against the intrusion of alien doctrines of government.
John L. LewisRead