“Enlightenment does nothing more than eavesdrop on likely wolves in their dressing rooms, where they put on and take off their sheep’s clothing.”

— Peter Sloterdijk

Source: Kritik der zynischen Vernunft [Critique of Cynical Reason] (1983), p. 43

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Peter Sloterdijk 49

German philosopher 1947

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Compare earlier version by 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 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."
Compare earlier version by Charles Flatt and Sheila Allen, "'Mainstream Values' Vs. Campus Pluralism : Campus Correspondence : The Privileged Classes Must Yield in the Name of Equality", Los Angeles Times, 25 November 1990: http://articles.latimes.com/1990-11-25/opinion/op-7188_1_american-values "Democracy has been described as four wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Unmoderated majority rule means that the mistakes, the ignorance and the prejudices of the majority will become law. Minorities will be devoured, and the resulting society will be one of enforced and fearful homogeneity."
Compare earlier version by James Bovard, "Re: One Person's Impact", Usenet group sci.environment, 23 April 1990: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!original/sci.environment/hos-RvIO1Mw/b3f0iWMcewUJ "A democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Winston Churchill wasn't necessarily making a compliment when he said that democracy was the worst form of government, except for all the rest. Democracy has no more claim to legitimacy than totalitarian dictatorship."

“Sophistry is one of the methods by which politicians dress up their policies in alien clothing, to pass them off as more desirable than they really are. Spin doctors thrive best where ‘democracy’ is the slogan.”

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“A room is, after all, a place where you hide from the wolves. That's all any room is.”

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“A sheep in sheep's clothing.”

Thomas Sturge Moore (1870–1944) British playwright, poet and artist

Edmund Gosse, quoted in Ferris Greenslet Under the Bridge: An Autobiography (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1943) p. 104.
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Criticism

“A sheep in sheep's clothing.”

Edmund Gosse (1849–1928) Poet, author, and critic

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Quoted in Ferris Greenslet, Under the Bridge, ch.12.

“Make yourselves sheep, and the wolves will eat you.”

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, …

Letter to Thomas Cushing (1773) http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/franklin-the-works-of-benjamin-franklin-vol-vi-letters-and-misc-writings-1772-1775#lf1438-06_head_007.
Context: But our great security lies, I think, in our growing strength, both in numbers and wealth; … unless, by a neglect of military discipline, we should lose all martial spirit …; for there is much truth in the Italian saying, Make yourselves sheep, and the wolves will eat you.

“Enlightenment does nothing more than eavesdrop on likely wolves in their dressing rooms, where they put on and take off their sheep’s clothing.”

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Peter Sloterdijk 49

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