There is a quotation that has various forms, but typically includes
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch".
In some forms there are three or four wolves, in some forms the armed state of
the lamb is commented upon.

I am seeking the source of this quotation.

An acceptable answer will include both the author of the quotation,
and the original source of the quote (i.e. in what work was it
originally published, or in what speech on what date was it first
delivered, or the date and recipient if excerpted from a private
letter).

An answer that simply asserts the author without the source is
explicitly not sufficient information.

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Clarification of Question by blackrock-ga on 18 Aug 2004 18:57 PDT

An acceptable answer would the author and source of the quotation,
even if the phrasing of the quote has evolved over time.  In other
words, a verifiable quotation of "Democracy consists of two brigands
and a traveller voting for whose purse should be looted" would fit the
requirements, just so long as the author and verifiable source were
provided.

---

Clarification of Question by blackrock-ga on 21 Aug 2004 10:23 PDT

I'd really like to know where this quote came from, so I'm bumping the
price up another $5.00.

To be clear, I'll be perfectly happy if this turns out to not be a
Franklin quote, just so long as the original author and source are
provably identified.

Benjamin Franklin, according to (in German)

http://www.eifrei.de/Archiv/BuecherzurFreiheit/Buch-Hoppe2/buch-hoppe2.html

This quote would not be complete without the following sentence:
"Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote".

http://www.arches.uga.edu/~jpetrie/poor_richard.html

http://www.seattlecentral.org/faculty/jhubert/franklin.html


Presumably, a Google Answers Researcher will find the source.

I should add that according to some webpages this quotation is
"attributed" to Franklin, e.g.
http://www.rawtimes.com/jrellis/quotes.html

Someone else asking the question "Searching for the origin of the
following attributed to Franklin in 1759" (not yet answered):
http://classicals.com/federalist/BenjaminFranklinhall/messages/968.html

That is about as far as I got; several references attributing it to
Franklin, but no actual citation of the original source.

"Benjamin Franklin (undocumented, but seems to be attributed to him
more than any other person)":
http://www.freerepublic.com/~akbear/

Some webpages, but only a few, attribute the quotation to Thomas Jefferson.

I doubt that you'll find a verifiable source for this old chestnut.
It's not likely to be Franklin; the word "lunch" didn't come into the
English language until decades after Franklin's death.

"There's also a page with three quotes, all questionable. One is from
from former New York Times editor John Swinton saying that journalists
are forced to lie, but he was a pro-labor Marxist, so you'd think he
would be given little credence by conservatives. Then there's a quote
from Thomas Jefferson about how liberty comes from God which may well
be accurate as far as it goes, but probably doesn't begin to represent
what Jefferson felt about religious matters. The third is, I suspect,
bogus. It claims to be from Benjamin Franklin and it says, 'Democracy
is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is
a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!' I could almost believe the
first sentence may appear somewhere in Franklin's writings, but the
second is a little too on-the-nose for me swallow. Plus, it
essentially advocates fascism, something I doubt the founder of a
democratic republic would be comfortable doing. I attempted a little
web-mojo to find a good source for the quote, but it's so widespread
it was tough to nail down. The only additional attribution I could
find was '1759,' which is not terribly helpful. I found a couple
places that attributed the first line to 'Anonymous,' so I think it's
pretty safe to assume that the whole thing is an old anonymous quote
expanded and attributed to an authority who was probably long dead
before it was first written down."

http://www.stomptokyo.com/scott/blog/C2031001896/

Here's a variant that is rather amusing.

A Democracy: Three wolves and a sheep voting on dinner. 

A Republic: The flock gets to vote for which wolves vote on dinner. 

A Constitutional Republic: Voting on dinner is expressly forbidden,
and the sheep are armed.

Federal Government: The means by which the sheep will be fooled into
voting for a Democracy.

Freedom: Two very hungry wolves looking for dinner and finding a very
well-informed and well-armed sheep.

http://www.geoffmetcalf.com/definitations_20001130.html

I agree that the language doesn't fit with the cadence of an
eighteenth century author.  If the quote can be cited from that era,
but was originally phrased differently, that would be an acceptable
answer.

I can't help but wonder which Jefferson quote the writer of stomptokyo
was referencing.  My guess is:

"The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time." - Thomas
Jefferson, A Summary View of the Rights of British America, 1774

Quotation not mentioned in Bartlett?s Franklin Quotations (1919):

John Bartlett (1820?1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
Benjamin Franklin (1706?1790)

http://www.bartleby.com/100/245.html

http://www.bartleby.com/people/FranklinB.html