Democracy Quotes

"Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country"

Franklin D. Roosevelt, President

"Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education"

Franklin D. Roosevelt, President

"As citizens of this democracy, you are the rulers and the ruled, the law-givers and the law-abiding, the beginning and the end"

Adlai E. Stevenson, Politician

"Corruption is nature's way of restoring our faith in democracy"

Peter Ustinov, Actor

"Every government is a parliament of whores. The trouble is, in a democracy, the whores are us"

P. J. O'Rourke, Journalist

"The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all"

John F. Kennedy, President

"Israel was not created in order to disappear - Israel will endure and flourish. It is the child of hope and the home of the brave. It can neither be broken by adversity nor demoralized by success. It carries the shield of democracy and it honors the sword of freedom"

John F. Kennedy, President

"To acquire immunity to eloquence is of the utmost importance to the citizens of a democracy"

Bertrand Russell, Philosopher

"On account of being a democracy and run by the people, we are the only nation in the world that has to keep a government four years, no matter what it does"

Will Rogers, Actor

"Democracy is indispensable to socialism"

Vladimir Lenin, Leader

"Deliberation and debate is the way you stir the soul of our democracy"

Jesse Jackson, Activist

"I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy - but that could change"

Dan Quayle, Vice President

"El Salvador is a democracy so it's not surprising that there are many voices to be heard here. Yet in my conversations with Salvadorans... I have heard a single voice"

Dan Quayle, Vice President

"It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it; consequently, the defenders of every kind of regime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using the word if it were tied down to any one meaning"

George Orwell, Author

"Democracy is a process by which people are free to choose the man who will get the blame"

Laurence J. Peter, Writer

"In a democracy, the majority of the citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority"

Edmund Burke, Statesman

"It is a strange fact that freedom and equality, the two basic ideas of democracy, are to some extent contradictory. Logically considered, freedom and equality are mutually exclusive, just as society and the individual are mutually exclusive"

Thomas Mann, Writer

"Democracy is timelessly human, and timelessness always implies a certain amount of potential youthfulness"

Thomas Mann, Writer

"Few businessmen are capable of being in politics, they don't understand the democratic process, they have neither the tolerance or the depth it takes. Democracy isn't a business"

Malcolm Forbes, Publisher

"Democracy is being allowed to vote for the candidate you dislike least"

Robert Byrne, Celebrity

"A marvel that has nothing to offer, democracy is at once a nation's paradise and its tomb"

Emile M. Cioran, Philosopher

"To win the cause we all believe in, the spread of true democracy all over the world, we need to win by example, not just with speeches but by example; not just with military might but by gaining the respect of the world"

Barbara Boxer, Politician

"You know, I wish the world well. I want Iraq to have democracy and the Haitians to have democracy. I want the people of Afghanistan to thrive. Lord knows, we spend enough money there to help them. What about people at home? Isn't that our first responsibility?"

Barbara Boxer, Politician

"Our democracy is the centerpiece of who we are as a nation. And it is the fondest hope of all Americans that we can help bring democracy to every corner of the world"

Barbara Boxer, Politician

"I have always been of the mind that in a democracy manners are the only effective weapons against the bowie-knife"

James Russell Lowell, Poet

"It's politely assumed that democracy is a means of containing and restraining violence. But violence comes not from genes but from ideas"

Edward Bond, Playwright

"Violence is hidden within democratic structures because they are not radically democratic - Western democracy is merely a domestic convenience of consumerism"

Edward Bond, Playwright

"In Europe, it appears that in the name of democracy, elites are pursuing an autocratic, centralized power, seeking economic control and social regimentation"

Maggie Gallagher, Writer

"In a democracy, dissent is an act of faith"

J. William Fulbright, Politician

"My thinking tends to be libertarian. That is, I oppose intrusions of the state into the private realm - as in abortion, sodomy, prostitution, pornography, drug use, or suicide, all of which I would strongly defend as matters of free choice in a representative democracy"

Camille Paglia, Author

"When public men indulge themselves in abuse, when they deny others a fair trial, when they resort to innuendo and insinuation, to libel, scandal, and suspicion, then our democratic society is outraged, and democracy is baffled"

J. William Fulbright, Politician

"Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time"

E. B. White, Writer

"In the Soviet Union, capitalism triumphed over communism. In this country, capitalism triumphed over democracy"

Fran Lebowitz, Journalist

"It's a democracy and if I am outvoted, I have to accept the majority decisions"

Moshe Dayan, Soldier

"Democracy don't rule the world, You'd better get that in your head; This world is ruled by violence, But I guess that's better left unsaid"

Bob Dylan, Musician

"You can't put democracy and freedom back into a box"

George W. Bush, President

"If allowed to run free of the social system, capitalism will attempt to corrupt and undermine democracy, which is after all not a natural state"

John Ralston Saul, Author

"Protection of private property is a fundamental right protected in a strong democracy"

Jim Ryun, Athlete

"Democracy can only spring from practising it early, and democratic action was not to expected from young people brought up under a close authoritarian system"

Dora Russell, Celebrity

"The risk of a terrorist victory is greater when in fighting terror, democracy betrays its own essence"

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Politician

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