Trevize said, “I know what the word ‘skeptic’ means in Galactic, but how do you use the word?”

“Exactly as you do, Councilman. I accept only what I am forced to accept by reasonably reliable evidence, and keep that acceptance tentative pending the arrival of further evidence. That doesn’t make us popular.”

“Why not?” said Trevize.

“We wouldn’t be popular anywhere. Where is the world whose people don’t prefer a comfortable, warm, and well-worn belief, however illogical, to the chilly winds of uncertainty?”

from “Foundation and Earth” by Isaac Asimov

“A democracy is nothing but mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people take away the rights of the other forty-nine.” Thomas Jefferson