The European monarchs of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries were thoroughly convinced, as a matter of political philosophy, of the superiority of their form of government.

• 自柏拉图、亚里士多德以降，18世纪之前所有伟大的思想家都认为，民主制度是将统治权交到道德败坏、自私自利、愚昧无知的暴民手中。