“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
“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”
"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
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H.L. Mencken281
American journalist and writer 1880–1956Related quotes
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Richard Feynman book QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter
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