“When I refuse to obey an unjust law, I do not contest the right of the majority to command, but I simply appeal from the sovereignty of the people to the sovereignty of mankind.”

Source: Democracy in America

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "When I refuse to obey an unjust law, I do not contest the right of the majority to command, but I simply appeal from th…" by Alexis De Tocqueville?
Alexis De Tocqueville photo
Alexis De Tocqueville 135
French political thinker and historian 1805–1859

Related quotes

Noam Chomsky photo

“I have a parrot. It can say 'sovereignty to all the people' in Portuguese.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

Noam Chomsky: Coronavirus - What is at stake? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-N3In2rLI4 | Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25) Mar 28, 2020
Quotes 2010s, 2020, Coronavirus - What is at stake?

Alfred Denning, Baron Denning photo
Margaret Thatcher photo

“Our sovereignty does not come from Brussels—it is ours by right and by heritage.”

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician

Speech in the House of Commons (26 June 1991) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/108276
Post-Prime Ministerial

Alan Keyes photo
Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette photo

“True republicanism is the sovereignty of the people. There are natural and imprescriptible rights which an entire nation has no right to violate”

Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (1757–1834) French general and politician

Speech (3 January 1834), quoted in Lafayette in Two Worlds: Public Cultures and Personal Identities in an Age of Revolutions (1999), p. 256
Context: True republicanism is the sovereignty of the people. There are natural and imprescriptible rights which an entire nation has no right to violate, just as national sovereignty is above the secondary agreements of the government.

Allen C. Guelzo photo

“[I]n a liberal democracy, sovereignty lies in the people at large; and our governing structures exist to implement that will.”

Allen C. Guelzo (1953) American historian

2010s, Interview with Sara Gabbard (2018)

Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Robert Filmer photo

“To majesty or sovereignty belongeth an absolute power not subject to any law.”

Robert Filmer (1588–1653) English writer

Source: The Power of Kings, p. 317

“I am a rebel by birth. … I contest anything that is unjust, that causes suffering in humanity.”

Yip Harburg (1896–1981) American song lyricist

"Yip Harburg: Secular Songwriter" by Dan Barker in Freethought Today Vol. 22, No. 3 (April 2005) http://archive.is/20120711052246/http://ffrf.org/fttoday/2005/april/barker.php
Context: I am a rebel by birth. … I contest anything that is unjust, that causes suffering in humanity. My feelings about that are so strong, I don't think I could live with myself if I weren't honest.

Charles Bukowski photo

Related topics