Democracy Quotes

"137 years later, Memorial Day remains one of America's most cherished patriotic observances. The spirit of this day has not changed - it remains a day to honor those who died defending our freedom and democracy"

Doc Hastings, Politician

"The United States is not for democracy in Iraq, it's for setting up a puppet government"

Peter Camejo, Businessman

"In the democracy of the dead all men at last are equal. There is neither rank nor station nor prerogative in the republic of the grave"

John James Ingalls, Politician

"Democracy is fatal for the arts; it leads only to chaos or the achievement of new and lower common denominators of quality"

Walter Legge, Businessman

"I believe democracy flourishes when the government can take legitimate steps to keep its secrets and when the press can decide whether to print what it knows"

Katherine Graham, Publisher

"The theory of relativity worked out by Mr. Einstein, which is in the domain of natural science, I believe can also be applied to the political field. Both democracy and human rights are relative concepts - and not absolute and general"

Jiang Zemin, Leader

"Be assured, fellow citizens, that in a democracy it is the laws that guard the person of the citizen and the constitution of the state, whereas the despot and the oligarch find their protection in suspicion and in armed guards"

Aeschines, Statesman

"Now, mark it. This may be strong language, but heed it. The people mean it, and, my friends of the Eastern Democracy, we bid farewell when you do that thing"

Richard Parks Bland, Politician

"I will protect democracy with my life"

Thaksin Shinawatra, Politician

"In liberal democracy and anxious anarchy, the traditional classic dance, compact of aristocratic authority and absolute freedom in a necessity of order, has never been so promising as an independent expression as it is today"

Lincoln Kirstein, Dancer

"When a government goes to war, particularly a democracy, it is the most solemn and awesome responsibility of our leaders - to decide to send our kids to go off and kill and die for us"

Joe Wilson, Politician

"I think if people value democracy, they had damn well better get out and exercise their right to vote while their vote still means something"

Bob Weir, Musician

"The democracy process provides for political and social change without violence"

Aung San Suu Kyi, Activist

"And when they do spin out of control there are important ramifications that affect America, not just its direct national interest but its broader interests as a nation which has thought of itself as a beacon to other nations, of freedom, liberty, democracy, whatever"

John Pomfret

"Recent action in Syria and Palestine also tell us that the awakening voices of democracy in those regions are occurring, and that those in that region are able to pursue it without being stifled by terrorists that are despotic"

Judd Gregg, Politician

"We must never forget that many around the globe are denied the basic rights we enjoy as Americans. If we are to continue enjoying these privileges and freedoms we must accept our mission of expanding democracy around the globe"

James Inhofe, Politician

"To make democracy work, we must be a notion of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain"

Louis L'Amour, Author

"Our political institutions work remarkably well. They are designed to clang against each other. The noise is democracy at work"

Michael Novak, Philosopher

"While democracy in the long run is the most stable form of government, in the short run, it is among the most fragile"

Madeleine Albright, Statesman

"Democracy derailed is democracy denied"

Chaka Fattah, Politician

"Democracy is a political method, that is to say, a certain type of institutional arrangement for arriving at political - legislative and administrative - decisions and hence incapable of being an end in itself"

Joseph A. Schumpeter, Economist

"The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness which the ambitious call, and the ignorant believe to be liberty"

Fisher Ames, Statesman

"I have absolutely no idea what my generation did to enrich our democracy. We dropped the ball. We entered a period of complacency and closed our eyes to the public corruption of our democracy"

Wynton Marsalis, Musician

"Amnesty International continues to report that extra judicial tortures and murders continue. This is not democracy that we are exporting to Mexico, and this is certainly not what the Mexican workers signed up for"

Stephen F. Lynch, Politician

"A short exposure to the convention convinced me that the Internet may save the Democracy in that it is a way for the people, for the citizens, to have some direct influence on the government"

John Jay Hooker, Businessman

"As you know from reading many of these Negro writers, we don't deal too much with the discussion of democracy and what it means and how improvisation fits in all that"

Stanley Crouch, Critic

"Democracy no longer works for the poor if politicians treat them as a separate race"

Frank Field, Politician

"In this era of the global village, the tide of democracy is running. And it will not cease, not in China, not in South Africa, not in any corner of this earth, where the simple idea of democracy and freedom has taken root"

Paul Tsongas, Politician

"This election marks a significant moment in Haiti; it not only serves as the basis of hope along the road to democracy, but also serves as a testament to the resolve and character of the Haitian people during their long struggle for peace, reconciliation, and prosperity"

Kendrick Meek, Politician

"Liberal democracy - as you know, in the old days, we were saying we want socialism with a human face. Today's left effectively offers global capitalism with a human face, more tolerance, more rights and so on. So the question is, is this enough or not? Here I remain a Marxist: I think not"

Slavoj Zizek, Philosopher

"I think the good old British democracy should keep scrutinising and pressing to get the truth out"

Clare Short, Politician

"The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was indeed a vital instrument of democracy, ensuring the integrity and reliability of a democratic process that we as a Country hold so dear"

Charles Rangel, Politician

"Nevertheless, I resist cynicism and continue to believe in the possibilities for genuine democracy"

William Greider, Author

"What should be targeted is a concept of organic, and not just mechanic, democracy that preserves the rule of law, separation of powers, and that is participatory and pluralistic"

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President

"Similarly, it is argued that the culture of Islam is incompatible with democracy. Basically, this conventional perspective of the Middle East thus contends that democracy in that region is neither possible nor even desirable"

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President

"Democracy is not something that happens, you know, just at election time, and it's not something that happens just with one event. It's an ongoing building process. But it also ought to be a part of our culture, a part of our lives"

Jim Hightower, Activist

"The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment"

Robert M. Hutchins, Educator

"Politicians, no matter who they are, shouldn't be able to manipulate the public on a single issue and then call an election at the height of support - that's a little bit of a manipulation of democracy"

Jim Bolger, Statesman

"We discussed the history of postwar Japan and how Japan had missed an opportunity to build a more functional democracy because of the focus on fighting communism driven in large part by the American occupation"

Joichi Ito, Businessman

"Without democracy there is no freedom. Violence, no matter who is using it, is always reactionary"

Friedrich Ebert, Politician

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