Democracy Quotes: Timeless Wisdom and Insights (Page 2)

"I never wanted to do biography just to tell the life of a famous man. I always wanted to use the life of a man to examine political power, because democracy shapes our lives"

Robert Caro, Writer

"In a democracy there is a centralization of governmental power in a simple majority"

Robert Welch

"Our democracy is not a product but a continual process. It is preserved not by monuments but deeds. Sometimes it needs refining; sometimes it needs amending; sometimes it needs defending. Always, it needs improving"

Lee H. Hamilton, Politician

"Also, an area that interests me - and it will probably take years to state what I mean - is the period of the rise of democracy, with Tom Paine, which is around the turn of the 18th century into the 19th"

Fiona Shaw, Actress

"Global markets must be balanced by global values such as respect for human rights and international law, democracy, security and sustainable economic and environmental development"

Anna Lindh, Politician

"The Norwegian model is a successful combination of a strong welfare state, an open and competitive market economy, and a well-functioning democracy"

Jens Stoltenberg, Politician

"Democracy is now going forth on a crusade against imperialism"

Irving Babbitt, Critic

"One has the right to be wrong in a democracy"

Claude Pepper, Politician

"I regard freedom of expression as the primary right without which one can not have a proper functioning democracy"

Lord Hailsham, Politician

"If we have a chance of succeeding and bringing stability and democracy to Iraq, it will mean learning from our mistakes, not denying them and not ignoring them"

Carl Levin, Politician

"A full and fair discussion is essential to democracy"

George Soros, Businessman

"Fundamentalists are not friends of democracy. And that includes your fundamentalists in the United States"

Karen Armstrong, Writer

"Either we are all free, or we fail; democracy must belong to all of us"

Dennis Chavez, Politician

"Now the first step has to be taken, the step towards democracy. This step is full of risks, and requires trust on all sides. We don't know where it will lead. But if we just stand still, we will have no chance of escaping the violence"

Daniel Barenboim, Musician

"It's not a democracy here, it's the Middle East"

Silvan Shalom, Politician

"Democracy without morality is impossible"

Jack Kemp, Politician

"The last two elections were stolen. They were stolen and so we will not rest until we reclaim our democracy and this is what today is all about"

Barbara Lee, Politician

"Democracy for us tends to be has to do with who shouts the loudest!"

Peter Hook, Musician

"Slowly but surely, we are acquiring that famous culture of democracy, which is our objective"

Paul Biya, Statesman

"All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy"

Alfred E. Smith, Politician

"What we have is two important values in conflict: freedom of speech and our desire for healthy campaigns in a healthy democracy. You can't have both"

Dick Gephardt, Politician

"As I understand I took most so-called democratic states about 200 years on average to build their democracies. That is why, when we go to sleep under totalitarian rule and wake up in a democracy, it makes me laugh"

Aleksandr Lebed, Politician

"And we are grateful to the American young men and women who are risking their lives to give the Iraqi people this chance, this dream of democracy in Iraq now"

Ahmed Chalabi, Statesman

"Adultery is the application of democracy to love"

H. L. Mencken, Writer

"An ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination"

Voltaire, Writer

"Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few"

George Bernard Shaw, Dramatist

"The spirit of democracy is not a mechanical thing to be adjusted by abolition of forms. It requires change of heart"

Mahatma Gandhi, Leader

"A democracy which makes or even effectively prepares for modern, scientific war must necessarily cease to be democratic. No country can be really well prepared for modern war unless it is governed by a tyrant, at the head of a highly trained and perfectly obedient bureaucracy"

Aldous Huxley, Novelist

"You can never have a revolution in order to establish a democracy. You must have a democracy in order to have a revolution"

Gilbert K. Chesterton, Writer

"Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around"

Gilbert K. Chesterton, Writer

"Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty"

Plato, Philosopher

"Democracy passes into despotism"

Plato, Philosopher

"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy"

Abraham Lincoln, President

"In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme"

Aristotle, Philosopher

"If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in government to the utmost"

Aristotle, Philosopher

"Democracy arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects; because men are equally free, they claim to be absolutely equal"

Aristotle, Philosopher

"Democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man"

Ronald Reagan, President

"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter"

Winston Churchill, Statesman

"Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep him in prison because he is unpopular. This is really the test of civilization"

Winston Churchill, Statesman

"It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried"

Winston Churchill, Statesman

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