Democracy Quotes

The goal of a great democracy should be fulfillment, not ease. It should be adequacy, not serenity.

My parents told us how they felt but never imposed their beliefs on us, although I appreciate I got a healthy sense of democracy from them.

No matter what happens, nothing can prevent the historical process by which society demands freedom and democracy.

The modern infrastructures that exists in the world all contribute to the advancement of human rights and democracy.

Let me begin by saying not only you can't have democracy with $75 million. You can't even have it with $750 billion.

I hope you realize, in a democracy, laughter is assent.

In order to solve the climate crisis, we need to solve the democracy crisis.

Jazz brought this sense of democracy where four guys come together and your name may be on the marquee, but in this moment, when you're the soloist, it's you, and we follow you. We follow you.

Public opinion is presumptively an input to policy formation in a democracy because politicians respond to it or at least are believed to respond [to it].

Most liberal democracies don't try to figure out what the truth is.

Laws are important precisely because in a democracy they reflect the attitudes and aspirations of those they govern.

I am thankful for our democracy, liberty, and prosperity, and that so many Americans have dedicated their lives to improving our country and our world.

Democracy only works, as President [Barack] Obama spoke of in his farewell message, if it's driven by the people and the people stay active and vigilant and speak out and let their concerns be known.

I have a lot of faith and confidence in Cuban democracy.

Democracy is an experimental system. I like it when states try out new ideas. I think we ought to expand, not contract, our federalist system.

I don't believe in democracy by bayonet.

Anybody who cares about the functioning of democracy should be concerned about the blurring of lines between public and private interests.

Can it be believed that the democracy, which has overthrown the feudal system and vanquished kings, will retreat before tradesmen and capitalists?

No men are less addicted to reverie than the citizens of a democracy.

Democracy does not create strong ties between people. But it does make living together easier.

Democratic nations care but little for what has been, but they are haunted by visions of what will be.

Despotism may be able to do without religion, but democracy cannot.

What chiefly diverts the men of democracies from lofty ambition is not the scantiness of their fortunes, but the vehemence of the exertions they daily make to improve them.

Better use has been made of association and this powerful instrument of action has been applied for more varied aims in America than anywhere else in the world.

Democracy...is a society in which the unbeliever feels undisturbed and at home. If there were only a half dozen unbelievers in America, their well-being would be a test of our democracy.

Democracy is not an end in itself, but a means to achieve the sacred promises of human dignity, justice and peace.

Representative democracy betrays the electorate when laws have no roots in the people but in oligarchies. Studies on the concept and modalities of direct democracy are therefore becoming more topical

Democracy is not the end product, but the means to the end, which is the enjoyment of human rights by all.

Islam and democracy can function together.

How much ... did the volume of disease in a nation account for its spirit? If so, the eradication of sickness, as far as it was possible, was a responsibility a democracy must assume for its people.

Democracy is fine in politics. It should stay there, and we need more of it. But its political virture is no reason to practice it in the garden.

[N]o democracy with a free press has ever experienced a major famine.

The truth is that our democracy is a work in progress. We are all its founders. We are all learning that we are linked and not ranked.

Jealousy is a virtue of democracies which preserves them from tyrants.

We must all live so that our children do not have to pay for our deeds.

The promises of Fidel Castro's so-called revolution of pluralism and democracy, were and continue to be a false promise and a betrayal of all basic human rights.

I note that [Benazir] Bhutto demonstrates her own deep commitment to democracy by giving herself the title chairperson for life of the Pakistan Peoples Party.

Yes, there is a crisis of hunger on the planet, but hunger is not caused by a scarcity of food but a scarcity of democracy.

Indeed we do have an entitlement problem: some feel so entitled to power & wealth that they're willing to undermine our economy and our democracy.

democracy is dying. We are ruled by faceless bureaucrats and lecherous puritans. ... You think about it. 'All right for me but not for you' is their philosophy.

Taiwan matters because of its vital role in spreading democracy in East Asia. Taiwan matters because of its strategic importance to promote peace in the Pacific region.

Taiwan's democracy has grown very fast and we enjoy a certain degree of freedom, as other developed democracies like the United States.

We've got to rescue our democracy by using it.

For the sake of democracy, vigorous, civilized debate must replace the law of silence that political correctness has imposed.

Drift is the demon of democracy.

The great thing about our system of democracy is when they call you for jury duty, you have to come... It's an honor and a privilege. I was called and I've got to be here.

America is a country ready to be taken - in fact, longing to be taken - by political leaders ready to restore democracy and trust to the political process.

I think it's a big disservice to our country and to our democracy to continue to raise these doubts.

Democracy, like liberty, justice and other social and political rights, is not "given", it is earned through courage, resolution and sacrifice.

I think it's time for the Army to understand that power should be enshrined in the people if we are to be a genuine democracy and not in any particular institution or organisation.