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"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote."

— Benjamin Franklin

January 1, 1970

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Added by wikiquote-import-bot

Added on April 10, 2026

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Aphorists Engineers from the United States Founding Fathers of the United States of America Electrical engineers Governors of Pennsylvania

Original Language: English

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Widely attributed to Franklin on the Internet, sometimes without the second sentence. It is not found in any of his known writings, and the word "lunch" is not known to have appeared anywhere in English literature until the 1820s, decades after his death. The phrasing itself has a very modern tone and the second sentence especially might not even be as old as the internet. Some of these observations are made in response to a query at Google Answers. The earliest known similar statements are: — A

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin

Widely attributed to Franklin on the Internet, sometimes without the second sentence. It is not found in any of his known writings, and the word "lunch" is not known to have appeared anywhere in English literature until the 1820s, decades after his death. The phrasing itself has a very modern tone and the second sentence especially might not even be as old as the internet. Some of these observations are made in response to a query at Google Answers. The earliest known similar statements are: — A