Political Quotes

Lysander Spooner: “The doctrine that the majority have a right to rule, proceeds upon the principle that minorities have no rights in the…”

On the record
The doctrine that the majority have a right to rule, proceeds upon the principle that minorities have no rights in the government; for certainly the minority cannot be said to have any rights in a government, so long as the majority alone determine what their rights shall be.
Said by
Lysander Spooner

Editor's note · Context

Spooner critiques the principle of majority rule as inherently denying minority rights.

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They do not tell us of the almshouses, hospitals, schools, churches, etc., which, out of the purest charity and benevolence, they maintain for our benefit, out of the money they take from us.

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They acknowledge it to be our unquestioned right and duty to kill them, if we can; that they expect nothing else, than that we will kill them, if we can; and that we are only fools and cowards, if we do not kill them, by any and every…

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They do not tell us that we are the freest and happiest people on earth, inasmuch as each of our male adults is allowed one voice in ten millions in the choice of the men, who are to rob, enslave, and murder us.

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In short, they acknowledge themselves hostes humani generis: enemies of the human race.

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