True happiness is of a retired nature, and an enemy to pomp and noise; it arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of ones self, and in the next from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions. – Joseph Addison
It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it consequently, the defenders of every kind of regime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using the word if it were tied down to any one meaning. – George Orwell