Democracy Quotes

Democracies, unlike dictatorships, are forgiving and generous, but they cannot survive unless they fight.

No. What would I look like fighting for equality with the white man? I don't want to go down that low. I want the true democracy that'll raise me and that white man up raise America up.

In our political system, money is power. And that means a few can have a lot more power than the rest. That's bad news for everyone else - and for our democracy itself.

Scandals are the fertilizer of Western democracy.

The word 'radical' derives from the Latin word for root. Therefore, if you want to get to the root of anything you must be radical. It is no accident that the word has now been totally demonized.

Democracy is a small hard core of common agreement, surrounded by a rich variety of individual differences.

There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM, and ITT, and AT&T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today.

Until I see an Arab country, a Muslim country, with a democracy, I won't understand how anyone can have a problem with how they're treated.

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.

There is no "ruler" in our country. Poland is a democracy. Our Prime Minister leads the government; the President is fulfilling his tasks. But there is a little bit left for the party leader.

The Soviet system will not evolve into American democracy or vice-versa.

The key of the success of Studio 54 is that it’s a dictatorship at the door and a democracy on the dance floor.

[On Brazil:] In our country everything is weakening. The money is weak. Democracy is weak and the politicians are very weak. Everything that is weak dies one day.

The largest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy and prosperity, is no longer socialism. It is, instead, the ambitious, arrogant, unscrupulous ideology of environmentalism.

Republics have a longer life and enjoy better fortune than principalities, because they can profit by their greater internal diversity. They are the better able to meet emergencies.

Immigration is everyone’s business: it is one of the most important national issues. The idea that it is too dangerous to be debated is a mockery of democracy. It is too important not to debate.

The words democracy, socialism, freedom, patriotic, realistic, justice have each of them several different meanings which cannot be reconciled with one another.

The governments and the hard-headed military establishment and the general conservative part of America have never taken much interest in democracy, anyway.

Perhaps the best known, and certainly the most vaunted, "discovery" of modern public opinion research is the indifference and ignorance of a majority of the electorate in western democracies.

Unity is a great thing and a great slogan. But what the workers’ cause needs is the unity of Marxists, not unity between Marxists, and opponents and distorters of Marxism.

I wanted to get far away from those who believed in cruelty, so then I went to France, a land of true freedom, democracy, equality and fraternity.

Democracy is based upon the conviction that there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people.

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

We must be the great arsenal of Democracy.

One does not export democracy in an armored vehicle.

Democracy is the absolute value that makes for human dignity, as well as the only road to sustained economic development and social justice.

Democracy comes naturally to him who is habituated normally to yield willing obedience to all laws, human or divine.

The well being of democracies regardless of their type and status is dependent on one small technical detail: The right to vote. Everything else is secondary.

Prosperity can't be just for CEOs and hedge fund managers. Democracy can't be just for billionaires and corporations. Prosperity and democracy are part of your basic bargain, too.

All extremes are bad. All that is good and useful, if carried to extremes, may become-and beyond a certain limit is bound to become-bad and injurious.

Democracy is the best school to learn soft power.

Polls are the corporate media's standardized tests to determine how well we have learned what it has taught us.

Establish democracy at home, based on human rights as superior to property rights. . . .

Democracy was being saved from Communism by getting rid of democracy.

Too many people expect wonders from democracy, when the most wonderful thing of all is just having it.

What Tunisia urgently needs, is freedom and the building of a real democracy.

Let us continue to strive together for a more inclusive, democratic, and peaceful future for us all.

Liberals could not be less interested in democracy when it came to taking out Saddam Hussein... Now a loyal American ally [Mubarak] comes under attack and they are burning for democracy.

The Orange Revolution was a powerful example of democracy around the world. The people of Ukraine are continuing to shape their own future.

Democracy cannot survive without the guidance of a creative minority.

The parliament is the supreme decision-making and legislative body in any democracy. It reflects the collective desires of the citizens and makes laws.

In a democracy, every little wrong idea may grow up to become national policy.

The many refugees are not a Greek or German problem. They are a European problem. We should therefore develop a common strategy. That's why I am launching a cross-border movement for more democracy.

We teach reading, writing and math by [having students do] them. But we teach democracy by lecture.

Those against politics are in favor of the politics inflicted upon them.

The world was never more unsafe for democracy then it is today.

Generalized intelligence and mental alertness are the most powerful enemies of dictatorship and at the same time the basic conditions of effective democracy.

Liberal education reminds those members of a mass democracy who have ears to hear, of human greatness.

Debate is almost non-existent and no one is apparently accountable to anybody apart from their political party bosses. It is bad news for democracy in this country.

No democracy can exist unless each of its citizens is as capable of outrage at injustice to another as he is of outrage at unjustice to himself.