Inaugural Address (4 March 1845)
Context: By the theory of our Government majorities rule, but this right is not an arbitrary or unlimited one. It is a right to be exercised in subordination to the Constitution and in conformity to it. One great object of the Constitution was to restrain majorities from oppressing minorities or encroaching upon their just rights. Minorities have a right to appeal to the Constitution as a shield against such oppression.
“The right to vote is a consequence, not a primary cause, of a free social system—and its value depends on the constitutional structure implementing and strictly delimiting the voters' power; unlimited majority rule is an instance of the principle of tyranny.”
The Ayn Rand Letter (1971–1976)
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Ayn Rand 322
Russian-American novelist and philosopher 1905–1982Related quotes
2000s, Bush's Lincolnian Challenge (2002)
Talcott Parsons (1968) "Systems Analysis: Social Systems" in: David L. Sills ed. International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. p. 472
Column, March 21, 2014, " Paul Ryan was right – poverty is a cultural problem" http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/george-f-will-the-lefts-half-century-of-denial-over-poverty/2014/03/21/1aeaff4e-b049-11e3-a49e-76adc9210f19_story.html at washingtonpost.com.
2010s
Source: The Urban Question: A Marxist Approach, 1977, p. 276)