Demagogue Quotes

“The demagogue does not manipulate the people; instead, the “ruler who behaves like a subject”57 slavishly follows the will of the people and fails to chart a course for the city beyond the narrows of popularity and passion. The demagogue runs democracy into the ground. But”
― Michael Signer, Demagogue: The Fight to Save Democracy from Its Worst Enemies

“Beginning, before it becomes a historical event, is the supreme capacity of man; politically, it is identical with freedom. Initium ut esset homo creatus est—‘that a beginning be made man was created’ said Augustine.”216”
― Michael Signer, Demagogue: The Fight to Save Democracy from Its Worst Enemies

“What makes loneliness so unbearable is the loss of one's own self which can be realized in solitude, but confirmed in its identity only by the trusting and trustworthy company of my equals,” Arendt concluded, “In this situation, man loses trust in himself as the partner of his thoughts and that elementary confidence in the world which is necessary to make experiences at all.”206”
― Michael Signer, Demagogue: The Fight to Save Democracy from Its Worst Enemies

“The propaganda effect of infallibility, the striking success of posing as a mere interpreting agent of predictable forces,” Arendt wrote, “has encouraged in totalitarian dictators the habit of announcing their political intentions in the form of prophecy.”204”
― Michael Signer, Demagogue: The Fight to Save Democracy from Its Worst Enemies

“Those who aspire to total domination,” Arendt explained, “must liquidate all spontaneity, such as the mere existence of individuality will always engender, and track it down in its most private forms, regardless of how unpolitical and harmless these may seem.”200”
― Michael Signer, Demagogue: The Fight to Save Democracy from Its Worst Enemies

“Freedom as an inner capacity of man,” Arendt wrote, “is identical with the capacity to begin, just as freedom as a political reality is identical with a space of movement between men.”198”
― Michael Signer, Demagogue: The Fight to Save Democracy from Its Worst Enemies

“Arendt cited President John Adams with approval: “a constitution is a standard, a pillar, and a bond when it is understood, approved and beloved. But without this intelligence and attachment, it might as well be a kite or balloon, flying in the air.”197”
― Michael Signer, Demagogue: The Fight to Save Democracy from Its Worst Enemies

“Alexander Hamilton argued at the Constitutional Convention that “the people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge or determine right.”30”
― Michael Signer, Demagogue: The Fight to Save Democracy from Its Worst Enemies

“After all,” Jefferson wrote, “it is my principle that the will of the majority should always prevail.”19”
― Michael Signer, Demagogue: The Fight to Save Democracy from Its Worst Enemies

“No matter how beautifully designed the constitution or how wealthy the country, if ordinary people themselves are uninterested in holding authoritarians to account, they will readily hand the country over to a demagogue. But if the people embrace their rights and block anyone aspiring to unconstitutional powers, the demagogue will never have a chance. This”
― Michael Signer, Demagogue: The Fight to Save Democracy from Its Worst Enemies

“If it be asked what is to restrain the House of Representatives from making legal discriminations in favor of themselves and a particular class of society? I answer, the genius of the whole system, the nature of just and constitutional laws, and above all the vigilant and manly spirit which actuates the people of America, a spirit which nourishes freedom, and in return is nourished by it.1 —James Madison, Federalist Papers No. 57 I”
― Michael Signer, Demagogue: The Fight to Save Democracy from Its Worst Enemies

“Faith is harder to shake than knowledge, love succumbs less to change than respect, hate is more enduring than aversion,” Hitler wrote, “and the impetus to the mightiest upheavals on this earth has at all times consisted less in a scientific knowledge dominating the masses than in a fanaticism which inspired them and sometimes in a hysteria which drove them forward.”84”
― Michael Signer, Demagogue: The Fight to Save Democracy from Its Worst Enemies