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Quotation from Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton
“Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead.”
Orthodoxy, Chapter IV, The Ethics of Elfland (Project Gutenberg #130)
Chesterton defends tradition as an extension of the democratic principle across time, so that the dead are not disfranchised by the accident of death.
Citation: "Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead." — G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, Chapter IV, The Ethics of Elfland (Project Gutenberg #130). (id chesterton-orthodoxy-q4)
Portrait: Gilbert Chesterton, Ernest Herbert Mills, Public domain.
