Most of us are frightened of dying because we don't know what it meant to live.We don't know how to live,therefore we don't know how to die
Jiddu KrishnamurtiRead
When a legislature decides to steal some of our rights and plans to use police force to accomplish it, what's the real difference between them and the thief? Darn little! They hide behind the excuse that they're legislating democratically. The fact they do it by a majority vote has no moral significance whatsoever. Numerical might does not constitute right, no more than a lynch mob can justify its act because a majority participated.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote criticizes the idea that the majority can override individual rights under the guise of democracy.
H. L. Richardson's quote highlights a profound concern about the moral implications of legislative actions that infringe on individual rights. By drawing a parallel between a thief and a legislature that uses force to enact laws, Richardson argues that majority rule does not equate to moral correctness. The quote serves as a caution against the unchecked power of the majority and emphasizes that ethical considerations should prevail over sheer numerical strength.
Themes
RightsDemocracyLegislationMoralityMajorityFreedomTyranny
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about civil rights and government overreach during a political debate.
Similar quotes
I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following.
Mahatma GandhiRead
Mind is repetitive, mind always moves in circles. Mind is a mechanism: you feed it with knowledge, it repeats the same knowledge, it goes on chewing the same knowledge again and again. No-mind is clarity, purity, innocence. No-mind is the real way to live, the real way to know, the real way to be.
RajneeshRead
Religion isn’t about believing things. It's ethical alchemy. It’s about behaving in a way that changes you, that gives you intimations of holiness and sacredness.
Karen ArmstrongRead
In war, the moral is to the physical as three is to one.
Napoleon BonaparteRead
Charity bestowed upon those who are worthy of it is like good seed sown on a good soil that yields an abundance of fruits. But alms given to those who are yet under the tyrannical yoke of the passions are like seed deposited in a bad soil. The passions of the receiver of the alms choke, as it were, the growth of merits.
BuddhaRead