Democracy Quotes

My objection to the death penalty is based on the idea that this is a democracy, and in a democracy the government is me, and if the government kills somebody then I'm killing somebody.

It is true you cannot eat freedom and you cannot power machinery with democracy. But then neither can political prisoners turn on the light in the cells of a dictatorship.

The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy; the best weapon of a democracy is openness.

A politician is an animal which can sit on a fence and yet keep both ears to the ground.

Fear and destructiveness are the major emotional sources of fascism, eros belongs mainly to democracy.

I personally call the type of government which can be removed without violence 'democracy,' and the other, 'tyranny.'.

Democracy, it appears, is a bit chancy. But its chances also depend on what we do ourselves

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

Anywhere, anytime ordinary people are given the chance to choose, the choice is the same: freedom, not tyranny; democracy, not dictatorship; the rule of law, not the rule of the secret police.

Baseball serves as a good model for democracy in action: Every player is equally important and each has a chance to be a hero.

I am more convinced than ever that a lively two party system is essential to our democracy.

A man is judged by the company he keeps, and a company is judged by the men it keeps, and the people of Democratic nations are judged by the type and caliber of officers they elect.

Fifty-one percent of a nation can establish a totalitarian regime, suppress minorities and still remain democratic.

But democracy is by no means a limit one may not overstep; it is only one of the stages in the course of development from feudalism to capitalism, and from capitalism to Communism.

The experience of all former ages had shown that of all human governments, democracy was the most unstable, fluctuating and short-lived.

Democracy is indispensable to socialism.

We must occupy the food system to create food democracy.

Democracy is an extraordinary adventure. It's difficult, full of daring and risk and danger. But it's the greatest gift we have.

Democracy is the fig leaf of elitism.

A country that goes out of its way to imprison the innocent has no business preaching democracy to the world.

I like the noise of democracy.

Maintain democracy or go to dictatorship: that is what is at stake in these elections.

All such men are, or ought to be, agreed, that simple governments are despotisms; and of all despotisms, a democracy, though the least durable, is the most violent.

The greatest power of the mass media is the power to ignore. The worst thing about this power is that you may not even know you're using it.

Democracy leads to anarchy, which is mob rule.

Democracy's my idea. I do not agree with communists, my acts prove. Free press in Cuba - free ideas, freedom religion belief.

Force, violence, pressure, or compulsion with a view to conformity, are both uncivilized and undemocratic

The right to be respected is won by respecting others.

Every great movement must experience three stages: ridicule, discussion, adoption.

Freedom of the press is the staff of life, for any vital democracy.

Even in a society as tightly controlled as Singapore's, the market creates certain forces which perhaps in the long run may lead to democracy

When widely followed public figures feel free to say anything, without any fact-checking, it becomes impossible for a democracy to think intelligently about big issues.

Widespread public access to knowledge, like public education, is one of the pillars of our democracy, a guarantee that we can maintain a well-informed citizenry.

War is one of the constants of history, and it has not diminished with civilization or democracy.

From this vision of the role of the United Nations in the next century flow three key priorities for the future: eradicating poverty, preventing conflict and promoting democracy.

I confess I enjoy democracy immensely. It is incomparably idiotic, and hence incomparably amusing.

The problem with the West is that they start with political reform going towards democracy.

The reason that democracies always defeat dictatorships is because they're open to debate. We should never allow Washington to say, 'Shut up, get in line and wave the flag.'

It is wrong to ask who will rule. The ability to vote a bad government out of office is enough. That is democracy.

Democracy must first be safe for America before it can be safe for the world.

False rhetoric and false boastfulness spell moral ruin and lead unfailingly to political extinction.

I think what democracy means today, in reality, is to a large extent, manipulated consent - not forced consent, manipulated consent - and manipulated more and more with the help of Madison Avenue.

But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags that time cannot decay, I'm junk but I'm still holding up this little wild bouquet: Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

No amount of charters, direct primaries, or short ballots will make a democracy out of an illiterate people.

Democracy is a very admirable form of government - for dogs

Any comparison between the military dictatorship and democracy can only come from those who do not value the Brazilian democracy.

Citizens of the democratic societies should undertake a course of intellectual self defense to protect themselves from manipulation and control, and to lay the basis for meaningful democracy.

I think democracy is the most revolutionary thing in the world, because if you have power you use it to meet the needs of you and your community.

Tyranny and despotism can be exercised by many, more rigorously, more vigorously, and more severely, than by one.

Politics needs a flexible mind, for it has no immutable or eternal rules. In politics immutable or eternal rules lead to inevitable and swift defeat.