From 1943 speech
Industrial Management in a Republic[SUP]
[4][/SUP] by H. W. Prentis, president of the Armstrong Cork Company and former president of the National Association of Manufacturers.
This quote sometimes appears joined with the above one, most notably as part of a longer piece which began circulating on the Internet shortly after the
2000 U.S. Presidential Election[SUP]
[5][/SUP]:
A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
- From bondage to spiritual faith;
- From spiritual faith to great courage;
- From courage to liberty;
- From liberty to abundance;
- From abundance to complacency;
- From complacency to apathy;
- From apathy to dependence;
- From dependence back into bondage.
