Incumbents are safe, but party majorities are not. This fosters symbolic votes, message politics and little serious legislating in Congress

With the parties at virtual parity and the ideological gulf between them never greater, the stakes of majority control of Congress are extremely high.

Wherever the real power in a Government lies, there is the danger of oppression. In our Governments the real power lies in the majority of the Community, and the invasion of private rights is chiefly to be apprehended, not from acts of Government contrary to the sense of its constituents, but from acts in which the Government is the mere instrument of the major number of the constituents.

In Republics, the great danger is, that the majority may not sufficiently respect the rights of the minority.

At first view it might seem not to square with the republican theory, to suppose either that a majority have not the right, or that a minority will have the force to subvert a government . . . . But theoretic reasoning in this, as in most other cases, must be qualified by the lessons of practice.

The primary function of government is to protect the minority of the opulent from the majority of the poor.

If a faction consists of less than a majority, relief is supplied by the republican principle, which enables the majority to defeat its sinister views by regular vote. It may clog the administration, it may convulse the society; but it will be unable to execute and mask its violence under the forms of the Constitution.

The purpose of the Constitution is to restrict the majority’s ability to harm a minority.

I’m a big believer you should design work around a vast majority of people who want to do the right thing rather than around the tiny minority who might take advantage.

The great majority of habitual drinkers are born not only without desire for alcohol, but with actual repugnance toward it. Not the first, nor the twentieth, nor the hundredth drink, succeeded in giving them the liking. But they learned, just as men learn to smoke; though it is far easier to learn to smoke than to learn to drink. They learned because alcohol was so accessible.

But I am I, and I won’t subordinate my taste to the unanimous judgment of mankind. If I don’t like a thing, I don’t like it, that’s all; and there is no reason under the sun why I should ape a liking for it just because the majority of my fellow-creatures like it, or make believe they like it. I can’t follow the fashions in the things I like or dislike.

When you master all defensive and offensive aspects of the game and always enjoy the majority of possession, you’re sitting in pole position to win

The great majority of men use their own short-sighted ideas as a yardstick for measuring the divine omnipotence.

For a long time – that is, for the vast majority of my grown-up life – I worked resolutely for the two-state arrangement notwithstanding incalculable disappointments, both with respect to the Israeli governments and the Palestinian Authority.

One with God is always a majority. But many have been burned at the stake while the boats were being counted. Thomas Reed

Attack those concepts such as ‘third world.’ Think about it. If we look at it in terms of numbers, then people of color are the majority in this world. We should be the ‘first world.

It doesn’t take a majority to make a rebellion; it takes only a few determined leaders and a sound cause.

It was as if being a woman was a disease that you didn’t wish to catch. As long as you didn’t associate with the other women, you could imply to the majority, the men: I’m not like those other ones.

My resolution, standing with the vast majority of Americans who know we can and must be safer, is to cede no ground to those who would convince us the path is too steep, or we too weak.

One man with courage is a majority.

Professional sports, in of itself, is a fantasy, for the majority of the population.

The majority of actor kids are really competitive. But Gabby Sidibe on The Big C has been a big help to me. Her career went from zero to a hundred in about one second, so shes warned me what to expect.

Does history record any case in which the majority was right?

The men you see waiting in the lobbies of doctors’ offices are, in a vast majority of cases, suffering through poisoning caused by an excess of food.

In a democracy, the majority of the citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority.

It is not worth an intelligent man’s time to be in the majority. By definition, there are already enough people to do that.

What we do may be small, but it has a certain character of permanence and to have produced anything of the slightest permanent interest, whether it be a copy of verses or a geometrical theorem, is to have done something utterly beyond the powers of the vast majority of men.

It is not worth an intelligent man’s time to be in the majority. By definition, there are already enough people to do that.

The great silent majority.

I figured something out. And it is no secret what I figured out. Whatever the majority of people were doing, I found myself doing the opposite. I wanted to chase something great.

I loved the fact that Obama is multi-racial. I thought that was terrific, as my wife is the same racial make-up.

The fundamental reality for every worker, from sweeper to executive vice-president, is the eight hours or so that he spends on the job. In our society of organizations, it is the job through which the great majority has access to achievement, to fulfillment, and to community.

You cannot prevent a major catastrophe, but you can build an organization that is battle-ready, where people trust one another. In military training, the first rule is to instill soldiers with trust in their officers – because without trust, they won’t fight.

What is the major problem? It is fundamentally the confusion between effectiveness and efficiency that stands between doing the right things and doing things right. There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.

I think not just Nigeria but I think the whole of Africa has to turn back to the rural areas and that’s where the majority of the citizens are and that’s where the engine of of development has to be found.

Unless a man enters upon the vocation intended for him by nature, and best suited to his peculiar genius, he cannot succeed. I am glad to believe that the majority of persons do find their right vocation.

The majority of people are timid by nature, and that is why they constantly exaggerate danger. all influences on the military leader, therefore, combine to give him a false impression of his opponent’s strength, and from this arises a new source of indecision.

The majority of my patients consisted not of believers, but of those who had lost their faith

Went from makin’ tuna sandwiches to makin’ the news. I started speakin’ my mind and tripled my views.

You wanna know my secret? I pray a lot

Hain’t we got all the fools in town on our side? And hain’t that a big enough majority in any town?

The vast majority of our imports come from outside the country.

Make-up can only make you look pretty on the outside but it doesn’t help if you’re ugly on the inside. Unless you eat the make-up.

The membership of our party is necessarily a small portion of the Chinese people. Only if that small portion reflects the opinions of the majority of the people’s, and only if it works for their interests can the relationship between the people and the party be healthy.

Every comrade must be brought to understand that the supreme test of the words and deeds of a Communist is whether they conform with the highest interests and enjoy the support of the overwhelming majority of the people.

Communists should be the most farsighted, the most self-sacrificing, the most resolute, and the least prejudiced in sizing up situations, and should rely on the majority of the masses and win their support.

Step through new doors. The majority of the time there’s something fantastic on the other side.

One with God is a majority.

In the United States, the majority undertakes to supply a multitude of ready-made opinions for the use of individuals, who are thus relieved from the necessity of forming opinions of their own

So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly arise and make them miserable

A consciousness of misfortunes arising from a man’s own misconduct aggravates their bitterness

Love, safety, belongingness, and respect from other people are almost panaceas for the situational disturbances and even for some of the mild character disturbances.

Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.