Numbers

Famous quotes containing the word numbers:

    The forward Youth that would appear
    Must now forsake his Muses dear,
    Nor in the Shadows sing
    His Numbers languishing.
    Andrew Marvell (1621–1678)

    And when all bodies meet
    In Lethe to be drowned,
    Then only numbers sweet
    With endless life are crowned.
    Robert Herrick (1591–1674)

    The principle of majority rule is the mildest form in which the force of numbers can be exercised. It is a pacific substitute for civil war in which the opposing armies are counted and the victory is awarded to the larger before any blood is shed. Except in the sacred tests of democracy and in the incantations of the orators, we hardly take the trouble to pretend that the rule of the majority is not at bottom a rule of force.
    Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)