“The freeman casting with unpurchased hand
The vote that shakes the turrets of the land.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809–1894) Poet, essayist, physician
Poetry, a Metrical Essay; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“Vote, v. The instrument and symbol of a freeman's power to make a fool of himself and a wreck of his country.”
— Ambrose Bierce, book The Devil's Dictionary
The Devil's Dictionary (1911)
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Ambrose Bierce204
American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabu… 1842–1914Related quotes
Marilyn Stokstad (1929–2016) art historian
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“The vote is the most effective and merciful instrument that man has devised to manage his affairs.”
José Martí (1853–1895) Poet, writer, Cuban nationalist leader
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Martin H. Fischer (1879–1962) American university teacher (1879-1962)
Fischerisms (1944)
“He is the freeman whom the truth makes free.”
Source: The Task (1785), Book V, The Winter Morning Walk, Line 733.
Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist
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Antonin Scalia (1936–2016) former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
Call for Reckoning http://pewforum.org/deathpenalty/resources/transcript3.php3 - Pew Forum conference (25 January 2002). N.b. this speech was later modified into an article - God's Justice and Ours http://www.firstthings.com/article/2007/01/gods-justice-and-ours-32 which repeats much the same points. <br class="br">2000s
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) American politician, 36th president of the United States (in office from 1963 to 1969)
1960s, Voting Rights Act signing speech (1965)
Context: If you do this, then you will find, as others have found before you, that the vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.