Democracy's Limited Shelf Life

John Adams on the limited shelf life of democracies. Maybe our country's Founding Fathers knew a thing or two after all?

AUTHOR:	John Adams (1735–1826)
QUOTATION:	Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.
ATTRIBUTION:	JOHN ADAMS, letter to John Taylor, April 15, 1814.—The Works of John Adams, ed. Charles Francis Adams, vol. 6, p. 484 (1851).
SUBJECTS:	Democracy
BIOGRAPHY:	Columbia Encyclopedia