Democracy Quotes

Democracy is not a mere consequence, a certain stage in the development of society. It is the condition on which the survival of productive forces depends.

Democracy is no solution - it's just 51% bossing the other 49% around. For God's sake, Hitler was democratically elected! Democracy is just mob rule dressed up in a coat and tie.

A democracy is a state in which the poor, gaining the upper hand, kill some and banish others, and then divide the offices among the remaining citizens equally, usually by lot.

Patronage is almost a wicked word. By itself it could well-nigh defeat democracy.

We praise the strength, the patience and the longing of the people who did not stop thinking of freedom and democracy in these dark times

Certainly it is not a democracy.

Anarchy is the sure consequence of tyranny; for no power that is not limited by laws can ever be protected by them.

Whenever we remove a brick from the wall that was designed to separate religion and government, we increase the risk of religious strife and weaken the foundation of our democracy.

This is the first great problem of modern democracy...how to get a fair living by reasonable hours of work leaving enough leisure for both childhood and manhood.

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.

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.

Democracy is the superior form of government, because it is based on a respect for man as a reasonable being.

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

Liberty has never lasted long in a democracy, nor has it ever ended in anything better than despotism.

The most important element of democracy, I believe, is the protection of minorities.

It's hard in all countries. Democracy is hard, but it's better than the alternatives.

Democratic institutions form a system of quarantine for tyrannical desires.

The highest measure of democracy is neither the 'extent of freedom' nor the 'extent of equality', but rather the highest measure of participation.

Our minorities alone are in a position to know what the fathers of our democracy were talking about.

Women fight for democracy and engage in the world. But they shouldn't try and be copying men and be masculine; they should anchor on the home and build on those fundamentals.

Voting is one of the few things where boycotting in protest clearly makes the problem worse rather than better.

Justice for all children is the high ideal in a democracy.

A constitutional state is like daily bread, like water to drink and air to breath, and the best thing about democracy is that it is the only system capable of securing the constitutional state.

A single party is ruling in Hungary, but democracy and the freedom of speech are still in place.

Take the year a country first reaches 50% literacy and add one or two generations to allow the idea to sink in and, democracy, more or less automatically, appears.

Indeed, as long as a country has a culture a religion an ideology where Islam is dominant it will never be a democracy.

Tyrants are always assassinated too late. That is their great excuse.

Democracy divides people into workers and loafers. It makes no provision for those who have no time to work.

Passive fatalism can never be the role of a revolutionary party, like the Social Democracy.

The way you get democracy to function is by informing the public.

Communism destroys democracy. Democracy can also destroy Communism.

Democracy is always, by nature and constitution, the triumph of mediocrity.

A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy.

The world is weary of statesmen whom democracy has degraded into politicians.

Democracy is defended in 3 stages. Ballot Box, Jury Box, Cartridge Box.

Most faults are not in our Constitution, but in ourselves.

Democracy, thus French revolution, was not invented by philosophic theory nor by the bourgeois leadership. It was discovered by the masses in their method of action.

Democracy can be sustained and developed only by people who understand its essence.

It's all these pundits, all these consultants, and the candidates, as if they're in a bubble leaving democracy off-limits.

Imagine the Creator as a low comedian, and at once the world becomes explicable.

Democracy is perhaps the most promiscuous word in the world of public affairs.

Democracy? I want nothing to do with a system which operates on the premise that my rights don’t exist simply because I am outnumbered.

If sexual relations between consenting adults are not part of the right to privacy guaranteed by the Constitution, then American democracy is in trouble.

The doctrine that the cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy is like saying that the cure of crime is more crime.

Democracy is now going forth on a crusade against imperialism.

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

Love of the republic in a democracy, is a love of the democracy; love of the democracy is that of equality. Love of the democracy is likewise that of frugality.

The ruling power is always faced with the question, ‘In such and such circumstances, what would you do?’, whereas the opposition is not obliged to take responsibility or make any real decisions.

Democracy becomes a government of bullies tempered by editors.

Without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure.