Democracy gives every man the right to be his own oppressor. – James Russell Lowell

The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal – that you can gather votes like box tops – is… the ultimate indignity to the democratic process. – Adlai Stevenson, speech, Democratic National Convention, 18 August 1956

In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant. – Charles de Gaulle