A majority can never replace the man…. Just as a hundred fools do not make one wise man, an heroic decision is not likely to come from a hundred cowards.

The saying advances an anti-democratic, “leader principle” view of politics: numerical majorities are portrayed as inherently incapable of producing wisdom or courage, while decisive action is framed as the province of a singular exceptional individual. By likening the crowd to “a hundred fools” and “a hundred cowards,” it casts collective deliberation as mediocrity and fear, and elevates unilateral “heroic decision” as the proper engine of history. In Nazi ideology this kind of rhetoric functioned to delegitimize parliamentary compromise and justify authoritarian rule, presenting obedience to a strong leader as a remedy for the supposed weakness of mass politics.