“In a democracy, the people get the government they deserve.”
Alexis De Tocqueville (1805–1859) French political thinker and historian
It was Joseph de Maistre who wrote in 1811 "Every nation gets the government it deserves."
Misattributed
"Sayings" at Richard Stallman's personal site (c. 2001) http://www.stallman.org/sayings.html <br class="br">2000s
“In a democracy, the people get the government they deserve.”
Alexis De Tocqueville (1805–1859) French political thinker and historian
It was Joseph de Maistre who wrote in 1811 "Every nation gets the government it deserves."
Misattributed
George Seldes (1890–1995) American journalist
Lords of the Press (1938)
Incorporates the famous observation of Joseph de Maistre that "every nation gets the government it deserves."
Jane Austen (1775–1817) English novelist
Letter to Cassandra (1798-12-24) [Letters of Jane Austen -- Brabourne Edition]
Letters
“A part of kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve.”
Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French moralist and essayist
Richard Stallman (1953) American software freedom activist, short story writer and computer programmer, founder of the GNU project
Richard Stallman's dissenting view on Steve Jobs http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/10/steve-jobs-stallman-dissenting-view.html in The Los Angeles Times (8 October 2011) <br class="br">2010s
Antonin Scalia (1936–2016) former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
Dissenting, Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S. Ct. 2584, 192 L. Ed. 2d 609 (2015) ; decided June 26, 2015.
2010s
H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer
"A Few Pages of Notes," http://books.google.com/books?id=hXVHAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Democracy+is+the+theory+that+the+common+people+know+what+they+want+and+deserve+to+get+it+good+and+hard%22&pg=PA435#v=onepage The Smart Set (January 1915); later published in A Little Book in C major http://books.google.com/books?id=EAJbAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Democracy+is+the+theory+that+the+common+people+know+what+they+want+and+deserve+to+get+it+good+and+hard%22&pg=PA19#v=onepage (1916), and A Mencken Crestomathy (1949) <br class="br">1910s <br class="br">Source: A Little Book in C Major
“People who sacrifice beauty for efficiency get what they deserve. (Bernard Mickey Wrangle, p 99)”
Tom Robbins book Still Life with Woodpecker
Source: Still Life with Woodpecker
“Life deserves laughter, hence people laugh at it.”
Henryk Sienkiewicz book Quo Vadis
Petronius, in Ch. 2
Quo Vadis (1895)