Democracy Quotes

The greatest way to defend democracy is to make it work.

Reading builds the educated and informed electorate so vital to our democracy.

The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.

The media is absolutely essential to the functioning of a democracy. It's not our job to cozy up to power. We're supposed to be the check and balance on government.

No democracy can long survive which does not accept as fundamental to its very existence the recognition of the rights of minorities.

But foremost, I do not subscribe to the view that Islamic culture and democracy cannot be reconciled.

A functioning, robust democracy requires a healthy educated, participatory followership, and an educated, morally grounded leadership.

The US has not imposed democracy in Yemen, its people have.

The Greeks had invented democracy, built the Acropolis and called it a day.

Democracy will not come Today, this year Nor ever Through compromise and fear.

Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.

Presidents are selected, not elected.

Democracy is not something you believe in or a place to hang your hat, but it's something you do. You participate. If you stop doing it, democracy crumbles.

Federalism is the best curb on democracy. [It] assigns limited powers to the central government. Thereby all power is limited. It excludes absolute power of the majority.

Television has made dictatorship impossible but democracy unbearable.

Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule—and both commonly succeed, and are right.

Find the enemy that wants to end this experiment (in American democracy) and kill every one of them until they're so sick of the killing that they leave us and our freedoms intact.

In a democracy, we have always had to worry about the ignorance of the uneducated. Today we have to worry about the ignorance of people with college degrees.

Each generation has to stand up for democracy. It can't take anything for granted and may have to fight fundamental battles anew.

There cannot be true democracy unless women's voices are heard. There cannot be true democracy unless women are given the opportunity to take responsibility for their own lives.

When free discussion is denied, hardening of the arteries of democracy has set in, free institutions are but a lifeless form, and the death of the republic is at hand.

Democracy for an insignificant minority, democracy for the rich -- that is the democracy of capitalist society.

Sometimes it's better to have a benign dictator than a dumb democracy, to be honest.

Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy; it is absolutely essential to it.

Ethics must be reintroduced to public service to restore people's faith in government. Without such faith, democracy cannot flourish. Your ambitious agenda is filling a desperate need.

The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits.

There can be no perfect democracy curtailed by color, race, or poverty. But with all we accomplish all, even peace.

The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don't have to waste your time voting.

However, democracy cannot be defined as the existence of parliaments and elections alone.

Masculine republics give way to feminine democracies, and feminine democracies give way to tyranny.

A democracy is a volcano which conceals the fiery materials of its own destruction. These will produce an eruption and carry desolation in their way.

A pure democracy is generally a very bad government, It is often the most tyrannical government on earth; for a multitude is often rash, and will not hear reason.

Democracy is necessary to peace and to undermining the forces of terrorism.

We cannot make the world safe for democracy unless we also make the world safe for diversity.

Islam is not a race...Islam is simply a set of beliefs, and it is not 'Islamophobic' to say Islam is incompatible with liberal democracy.

Democracy is four wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.

One of the necessary accompaniments of capitalism in a democracy is political corruption.

A candle loses nothing when it lights another candle.

An informed citizenry is at the heart of a dynamic democracy.

Only a fool would try to deprive working men and working women of their right to join the union of their choice.

The first duty of a man is to think for himself

The fact that so many successful politicians are such shameless liars is not only a reflection on them, it is also a reflection on us. When the people want the impossible, only liars can satisfy.

Democracy has to be born anew every generation, and education is its midwife.

It has been well over half a century and I'm glad to say we have taken the right path from authoritarianism to democracy and this is a road of no return.

Democracy is the most demanding of all forms of government in terms of the energy, imagination, and public spirit required of the individual.

Dishonesty in government is the business of every citizen. It is not enough to do your own job. There's no particular gift in that. Democracy isn't a gift. It's a responsibility.

Offering democracy to an Arab is like bringing a horse to a steakhouse.

My definition of secularism is very clear. The sole religion of the Government is Nation First, the holy book is the Constitution.

Good citizenship and defending democracy means living up to the ideals and values that make this country great.

Between a balanced republic and a democracy, the difference is like that between order and chaos.