“Sheep run to the slaughterhouse, silent and hopeless, but at least sheep never vote for the butcher who kills them or the people who devour them. More beastly than any beast, more sheepish than any sheep, the voter names his own executioner and chooses his own devourer, and for this precious “right” a revolution was fought.”

Voters' strike

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Octave Mirbeau 23
French journalist, art critic, travel writer, pamphleteer, … 1848–1917

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“The American people are sheep. They're comfortable, rich, working. It's like the Romans, they're happy with bread and their spectator sports. The Super Bowl means more to them than any right.”

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James Bovard photo

“Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.”

James Bovard (1956) American journalist

Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty (1994), p. 333
Compare earlier version by Marvin Simkin, "Individual Rights", Los Angeles Times, 12 January 1992: http://articles.latimes.com/1992-01-12/local/me-358_1_jail-tax-individual-rights-san-diego "Democracy is not freedom. Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to eat for lunch. Freedom comes from the recognition of certain rights which may not be taken, not even by a 99% vote."
Compare earlier version by Charles Flatt and Sheila Allen, "'Mainstream Values' Vs. Campus Pluralism : Campus Correspondence : The Privileged Classes Must Yield in the Name of Equality", Los Angeles Times, 25 November 1990: http://articles.latimes.com/1990-11-25/opinion/op-7188_1_american-values "Democracy has been described as four wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Unmoderated majority rule means that the mistakes, the ignorance and the prejudices of the majority will become law. Minorities will be devoured, and the resulting society will be one of enforced and fearful homogeneity."
Compare earlier version by James Bovard, "Re: One Person's Impact", Usenet group sci.environment, 23 April 1990: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!original/sci.environment/hos-RvIO1Mw/b3f0iWMcewUJ "A democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Winston Churchill wasn't necessarily making a compliment when he said that democracy was the worst form of government, except for all the rest. Democracy has no more claim to legitimacy than totalitarian dictatorship."

“In Christ you will find, a very dear Friend;
Who is of this mind, to love to the end;
Yet satan is seeking, His sheep to devour;
And God He is making some whole this bright hour.”

Dorothy Ripley (1767–1832) missionary

A Hymn From My Nativity (22 August 1819), p. 17
The Bank of Faith and Works United (1819)

Charlie Higson photo
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“I am more afraid of an army of a hundred sheep led by a lion than an army of a hundred lions led by a sheep.”

Frederick Russell Burnham (1861–1947) father of scouting; military scout; soldier of fortune; oil man; writer; rancher

Taking Chances (1944)

Napoleon I of France photo

“An army of sheep, led by a lion, is better than an army of lions, led by a sheep.”

Napoleon I of France (1769–1821) French general, First Consul and later Emperor of the French

Attributed to Napoleon in Napoleon (1941) by Yevgeny Tarle, this is a variant of an ancient proverb often attributed to many military and political figures, including Alexander the Great, and the even earlier figure Chabrias (Χαβρίας).
Misattributed

Alexander the Great photo

“An army of sheep led by a lion is better than an army of lions led by a sheep.”

Alexander the Great (-356–-323 BC) King of Macedon

Attributed to Alexander, as quoted in The British Battle Fleet: Its Inception and Growth Throughout the Centuries to the Present Day (1915) by Frederick Thomas Jane, but many variants of similar statements exist which have been attributed to others, though in research done for Wikiquote definite citations of original documents have not yet been found for any of them:
I should prefer an army of stags led by a lion, to an army of lions led by a stag.
Attributed to Chabrias, who died around the time Alexander was born, thus his is the earliest life to whom such assertions have been attributed; as quoted in A Treatise on the Defence of Fortified Places (1814) by Lazare Carnot, p. 50
An army of stags led by a lion would be better than an army of lions led by a stag.
Attributed to Chabrias, A History of Ireland (1857) by Thomas Mooney, p. 760
An army of stags led by a lion is superior to an army of lions led by a stag.
Attributed to Chabrias, The New American Cyclopaedia : A Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge (1863), Vol. 4, p. 670
An army of sheep led by a lion are more to be feared than an army of lions led by a sheep.
Attributed to Chabrias, The Older We Get, The Better We Were, Marine Corps Sea Stories (2004) by Vince Crawley, p. 67
It is better to have sheep led by a lion than lions led by a sheep.
Attributed to Polybius in Between Spenser and Swift: English Writing in Seventeenth Century Ireland (2005) by Deana Rankin, p. 124, citing A Contemporary History of Affairs in Ireland, from 1641 to 1652 (1880) by John Thomas Gilbert Vol. I, i, p. 153 - 157; but conceivably this might be reference to Polybius the historian quoting either Alexander or Chabrias.
An army composed of sheep but led by a lion is more powerful than an army of lions led by a sheep.
"Proverb" quoted by Agostino Nifo in De Regnandi Peritia (1523) as cited in Machiavelli - The First Century: Studies in Enthusiasm, Hostility, and Irrelevance (2005) by Mathew Thomson, p. 55
Greater is an army of sheep led by a lion, than an army of lions led by a sheep.
Attributed to Daniel Defoe (c. 1659 - 1731)
I am more afraid of one hundred sheep led by a lion than one hundred lions led by a sheep.
Attributed to Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754 – 1838) Variants: I am more afraid of an army of 100 sheep led by a lion than an army of 100 lions led by a sheep.
I am not afraid of an army of one hundred lions led by a sheep. I am afraid of army of 100 sheeps led by a lion.
Variants quoted as an anonymous proverb:
Better a herd of sheep led by a lion than a herd of lions led by a sheep.
A flock of sheep led by a lion was more powerful than a flock of lions led by a sheep.
An army of sheep led by a lion would defeat an army of lions led by a sheep.
It were better to have an army of sheep led by a lion than an army of lions led by a sheep.
An army of sheep led by a lion, will defeat an army of lions led by a sheep.
An army of sheep led by a lion would be superior to an army of lions led by a sheep.
Unsourced attribution to Alexander: I would not fear a pack of lions led by a sheep, but I would always fear a flock of sheep led by a lion.
As one lion overcomes many people and as one wolf scatters many sheep, so likewise will I, with one word, destroy the peoples who have come against me.
This slightly similar statement is the only quote relating to lions in The History of Alexander the Great, Being the Syriac Version of the Pseudo-Callisthenes (1889) as translated by E. A. Wallis Budge, but it is attributed to Nectanebus (Nectanebo II).
Disputed

Daniel Defoe photo

“It is better to have a lion at the head of an army of sheep than a sheep at the head of an army of lions.”

Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) English trader, writer and journalist

The Life and Adventures of http://books.google.com/books?id=IZ9CAAAAYAAJ&q=%22better+to+have+a+Lyon+at+the+Head%22+%22an+Army+of+Sheep+than+a+Sheep+at+the+Head%22+%22an+Army+of+Lyons%22&pg=PA33#v=onepage Mrs. Christian Davies (1741)

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