Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess Salisbury Quotes
First-rate men will not canvass mobs; and if they did, the mobs would not elect the first-rate men.
Salisbury was a brilliant, effective prime minister, but he was a snob and not a democrat. See {639131}.
Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 1830-1903, 3rd Marquess Salisbury, British Prime Minister (Liberal), British Prime Minister (Conservative), Quarterly Review, 110, 1861
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
This quotation is almost always given as if it were Alcuin who advocated listening to the people, when actually his view was just the opposite. See William Tecumseh Sherman for a more modern expression of the same view. Also, Walter Reynolds {32317} for an opposite view, but using a similar phrase. Note that since he was referring to what "the people" say, the quote must have been in common usage in the 9th century. For the earliest known use of the statement in Western civilization, see Hesiod {603399}.
Mencken was a brilliant and funny but pompous snob who had little respect for the average person.
This is a great example of the hubris that affects many very successful politicians and erodes there effectiveness and makes them more dictatorial. They delude themselves into believeing that they are an accurte reflection of the people. In this case he absurdly argued that since he was brought up in a working class family and did not spend all his time with intllectuals, he therefore knew the Irish people’s preferences. If such an upbringing qualified a person to know the Irish wants, then there were millions of such in Ireland who grew up that way. And if they all reflected the Irish will, why was there so much disagreement amongst the Irish as with most other people?
