“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”
Thanks a lot, John Adams, and happy birthday to you too.
~CKL
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“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”
Thanks a lot, John Adams, and happy birthday to you too.
~CKL
Where’d you stumble on the quote?
It was in today’s Writer’s Almanac newsletter.
What experience did he base that on? Modern democracy hadn’t been around that long…
Well, according to the Library of Congress, the quote is from a letter Adams wrote in April of 1814.
I’d guess he was reaching back to ancient Greece or Rome, but dammit, Jim, I’m just a blogger, not a political historian. 🙂