
Origine: Citato in La bufala della democrazia https://web.archive.org/web/20090724164234/http://www.correntemente.org/archivio/la-bufala-della-democrazia/. In originale: A popular Government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy, or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives, dalla " Lettera a W.T. Barry http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch18s35.html", 4 agosto 1822, in The Writings of James Madison (1910) a cura di Gaillard Hunt, Vol. 9, p. 103; queste parole, con la forma arcaica "Governours", si trovano a sinistra dell'entrata principale del James Madison Memorial Building, Biblioteca del Congresso.