Fuente: Rodríguez Rivero, Daniel, Crónicas de Moriarty. Editorial Lulu.com. ISBN 9781291877878, p. 166. https://books.google.es/books?id=czPDBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA252&dq=9781291877878&hl=es&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiI8Jnm7YLhAhVC2xoKHdqNAvMQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=La%20democracia%20es%20dos%20lobos%20y%20un%20cordero%20votando%20&f=false
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.
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. http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=389308
The earliest known similar statements are:
A democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.
Gary Strand, Usenet group sci.environment, 23 April 1990. http://groups.google.com/group/sci.environment/msg/057b1c6389f4776f?dmode=source
Democracy is not freedom. Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to eat for lunch. Freedom comes from the recognition of certain rights which may not be taken, not even by a 99% vote.
Marvin Simkin, "Individual Rights", Los Angeles Times, 12 January 1992. http://articles.latimes.com/1992-01-12/local/me-358_1_jail-tax-individual-rights-san-diego
Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
James Bovard, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty (1994), ISBN 0312123337, p. 333.
Also cited as by Bovard in the Sacramento Bee (1994) http://www.giraffe.com/gr_wolves.html
Misattributed
Variante: Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.
La huelga de los electores.
The Fair Haven, memorias del difunto John Pickard Owen, cap. 3 (1873).
Fuente: [Butler] (2015).
“No me mataréis como un cordero sólo moriré donde yo quiero.”
“Cordero de dios que lavas los pecados del mundo, dime cuántas manzanas hay en el paraíso terrenal.”
Bioy Casares, 1959, 41
Citas de sus libros, Guirnalda con amores (1959)
Variante: "El mismo lobo tiene momentos de debilidad, en que se pone del lado del cordero y piensa: Ojalá que huya."
