The Majority
group · 2 works · 2 mentions · 7 anchored passages
the majority · majorities · the many · the stronger party
in the texts
An Essay on the Trial by Jury
The numerically larger political party claimed to have a right to rule the minority.
The doctrine that the majority have a right to rule, proceeds upon the principle that minorities have no rights in the government;
There is no particle of truth in the notion that the majority have a right to rule, or to exercise arbitrary power over, the minority, simply because the former are more numerous than the latter.
The will, or the pretended will, of the majority, is the last lurking place of tyranny at the present day.
Law in a Free State
The numerical majority of a political community, whose claim to rule by 'counting heads' is examined and qualified throughout the passage.
Just as a crowd of fools do not make a wise man, so the fact that the bullies are in a majority does not convert their arbitrary rule into liberty.
It is merely a foolish fiction to pretend that the majority vote is a test of the will of the people;
It is our duty to defer to the will of the majority, when the evil consequences of opposing it are probably greater than the evil consequences of conforming.