
“Under democracy individual liberty of opinion and action is jealously guarded.”
Young India (2 March 1922)
1920s
Freiheit statt Demokratie!
Interview in Junge Freiheit (24 June 2005) http://www.jf-archiv.de/archiv05/200526062409.htm
Freiheit statt Demokratie!
Freiheit statt Demokratie: Der libertäre Vordenker und bekennende "Antidemokrat" Hans-Hermann Hoppe über seine provokanten Thesen. Interview in Junge Freiheit, Nr. 26/05, 24. Juni 2005. S.3. Archiv Junge Freiheit http://www.jf-archiv.de/archiv05/200526062409.htm
“Under democracy individual liberty of opinion and action is jealously guarded.”
Young India (2 March 1922)
1920s
1990s, A Distinctly American Internationalism (November 1999)
The Dangers of American Liberty (1805), in [Ames, Fisher, and Seth Ames, Works of Fisher Ames: with a selection from his speeches and correspondence, 1854, Little, Brown, 349, Boston, http://books.google.com/books?id=fjoOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA349&vq=known+propensity]
Source: The Great Seesaw: A New View of the Western World, 1750-2000 (1988)
“LIBERTY!
FREEDOM!
DEMOCRACY!
True anyhow no matter how many
Liars use those words.”
Literary Essays, vol. II (1870–1890), New England Two Centuries Ago
“While democracy must have its organizations and controls, its vital breath is individual liberty.”
Statement of May 1908, quoted in "Reauthorization of The Civil Rights Division of The United States Department of Justice" (15 May 2003) US House of Representatives.
Widely attributed to Franklin on the Internet, sometimes without the second sentence. It is not found in any of his known writings, and the word "lunch" is not known to have appeared anywhere in English literature until the 1820s, decades after his death. The phrasing itself has a very modern tone and the second sentence especially might not even be as old as the internet. Some of these observations are made in response to a query at Google Answers. http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=389308
The earliest known similar statements are:
A democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.
Gary Strand, Usenet group sci.environment, 23 April 1990. http://groups.google.com/group/sci.environment/msg/057b1c6389f4776f?dmode=source
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.
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 must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
James Bovard, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty (1994), ISBN 0312123337, p. 333.
Also cited as by Bovard in the Sacramento Bee (1994) http://www.giraffe.com/gr_wolves.html
Misattributed
Variant: Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.
1910s, Address to Congress on War (1917)