Democracy Quotations

The flood of money that gushes into politics today is a pollution of democracy.

Few businessmen are capable of being in politics, they don't understand the democratic process, they have neither the tolerance or the depth it takes. Democracy isn't a business.

Our democracy poses problems and these problems must and shall be solved by courageous leadership.

However, I must say that I am very happy to see that we have such a positive result for our first referendum in our history and that gives me more confidence in Taiwan's democracy.

I can't let my mother's death have been in vain. Democracy is the best revenge, and we will have it.

I've always had a Marxist understanding of history: democracy is a result of a broad modernization process that happens in every country. Neocons think the use of political power can force the pace of change, but ultimately it depends on societies doing it themselves.

Democracy! Bah! When I hear that I reach for my feather boa!

I would like to stress this point undoubtedly: France sees the Arab Spring as auspicious. The Arab Spring holds out tremendous hope - hope for democracy and the rule of law, hope for peace and stability, hope for better future in which every person can pursue goals commensurate with his or her needs, talents and ambitions.

When Jefferson and the Republicans rallied to the Union and to the existing Federalist organization, the fabric of traditional American democracy was almost completely woven.

Democracy may have arisen in the West as the way of striving for the universal aspiration to dignity and freedom, but it isn't alien to the underlying concepts that infuse religion and moral philosophy everywhere.

My people are going to learn the principles of democracy, the dictates of truth and the teachings of science. Superstition must go.

In Egypt today most people are concerned with getting bread to eat. Only some of the educated understand how democracy works.

Collective freedom is one devoid of material bondage and one that supports the institutions necessary for democracy.

The primal principle of democracy is the worth and dignity of the individual.

I regard freedom of expression as the primary right without which one can not have a proper functioning democracy.

Every democracy is constructed day-to-day. And the electoral process reduces and minimalizes every single aspect of human complexity. We're putting it into pamphlets. We're doing a publicity show. We're becoming symbols.

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.

The deadliest foe of democracy is not autocracy but liberty frenzied.

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

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

In a world of democracies, in a world where the great projects that have set humanity on fire are the projects of the emancipation of individuals from entrenched social division and hierarchy; in such a world individuals must never be puppets or prisoners of the societies or cultures into which they have been born.

The best defense against usurpatory government is an assertive citizenry.

Free speech is not to be regulated like diseased cattle and impure butter. The audience that hissed yesterday may applaud today, even for the same performance.

Democracy... while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.

Change comes with both fear and some pain. Those two ingredients create mistrust, misunderstanding and misinformation. Such is the process of democracy.

We must remember that democracy works when given time to develop, mature and deliver. People must have access to information for informed debate. Government institutions must treat citizens fairly, and with dignity, while responding to their needs.

Democracy, like any non-coercive relationship, rests on a shared understanding of limits.

The potential for the abuse of power through digital networks - upon which we the people now depend for nearly everything, including our politics - is one of the most insidious threats to democracy in the Internet age.

Democracy cannot survive without the guidance of a creative minority.

I've always been very interested in the struggle for human rights, not just here but abroad, and I wanted to be an inside player in that struggle. I wanted to make the laws reflect our ideals and ideas in this democracy that is America.

Throughout American history many of our social gains and much of our progress toward democracy were made possible by the active intervention of the federal government.

I don't have any formula for ousting a dictator or building democracy. All I can suggest is to forget about yourself and just think of your people. It's always the people who make things happen.

The reality is that we are hated not because of our democracy, freedoms, and generous social security system; rather, we are hated because of our involvement in foreign conflicts and quarrels that were never our concern.

The United Nations has a critical role to play in promoting stability, security, democracy, human rights, and economic development. The UN is as relevant today as at any time in its history, but it needs reform.

To balance China, the democracies will need new friends - and India with its fast-growing economy, youthful population, and democratic politics seems the obvious candidate.

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.

Without democracy there is no freedom. Violence, no matter who is using it, is always reactionary.

The rights of democracy are not reserved for a select group within society, they are the rights of all the people.

There is an idea of democracy produced by one-sided thinking.

The Constitution of the United States was made not merely for the generation that then existed, but for posterity- unlimited, undefined, endless, perpetual posterity.

I dont personally feel that I have to save democracy and journalism.

The fight against terror is a common imperative for democracies and must become so for all nations.

I don't see democracy getting better. I see democracy diminishing. More rules, more legislation. Eventually governments will see everything.

How do we get democracy at the international level? That's our problem. and it's essentially the same problem people faced in the 18th Century when they tried to get democracy nationally. Now we need it internationally.

Our Founding Fathers crafted a constitutional Republic for the first time in the history of the world because they were shaping a form of government that would not have the failures of a democracy in it, but had the representation of democracy in it.

Being 'at the mercy of legislative majorities' is merely another way of describing the basic American plan: representative democracy.

And it was under Wilson that the first great propaganda slogan was coined and emblazoned everywhere, to make Americans start thinking favorably of democracies and forget that we had a republic.

The American flag is the most recognized symbol of freedom and democracy in the world.

Democracy is not something you put away for ten years, and then in the 11th year you wake up and start practicing again. We have to begin to learn to rule ourselves again.

A monoculture is not only Hollywood, but Americans trying to export 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.

Congress is functioning the way the Founding Fathers intended-not very well. They understood that if you move too quickly, our democracy will be less responsible to the majority.

I told the students that we can exert pressure without resorting to violence, and that we can move towards democracy without violence; that way, God will allow it.

If we expose the Chinese to our freedoms, it may create a greater hunger for democracy, reform and liberties in China.

The problem is there is no such thing as a viable democracy made up of experts, zealots, politicians and spectators.

In a democracy there are only two types of power: there's organized people and organized money, and organized money only wins when people aren't organized.

Bring it on. Dissent is central to any democracy.

It is dangerous for a national candidate to say things that people might remember.

Democracy in China is like Viagra; no such thing as free elections.

Democracy not only requires equality but also an unshakable conviction in the value of each person, who is then equal

I tell you, in my opinion, the cornerstone of democracy is free press - that's the cornerstone.

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

Democracy does not require perfect equality, but it does require that citizens share in a common life.

As in Athens, the right to participate was restricted to men, just as it was also in all later democracies and republics until the twentieth century.

Democracy's a very fragile thing. You have to take care of democracy. As soon as you stop being responsible to it and allow it to turn into scare tactics, it's no longer democracy, is it? It's something else. It may be an inch away from totalitarianism.

Social democracy does not represent an ideal future; it does not even represent the ideal past.

Democracy, as has been said of Christianity, has never really been tried.

Democracy needs support, and the best support for democracy comes from other democracies.

Democracy is a revelation, but it's complicated. There are elections to hold, politics to create, rights to assert, grievances to settle and institutions to build. To many, it's exhilarating. For others, it can be disappointing when it turns out that democracy doesn't immediately make life better.

When public access to voting is impaired or when public confidence in voting is diluted, democracy suffers and our freedom is less secure.

What we are witnessing is the birth of something I call 'Polisdigitocracy.' This is a form of government that counts participation and transparency as its cornerstones and uses technology as its guide. The digital revolution is allowing democracy to recall its foundations and evolution is modernizing and reinforcing our fundamental values.

I'm an American. We've translated democracy and brotherhood and equality into enterprise and opportunity and success - and that's getting Americanised.

We've been in the nation-building business since World War I, and especially since WWII. The goal is not a Jeffersonian Democracy in Afghanistan, but a representative government that respects human rights, protects its own people, and is a friend of the West. These are very realistic - and necessary - goals.

After each war there is a little less democracy to save.

Popularity makes no law invulnerable to invalidation. Americans accept judicial supervision of their democracy - judicial review of popular but possibly unconstitutional statutes - because they know that if the Constitution is truly to constitute the nation, it must trump some majority preferences.

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

So in Asia I want to make - I want to succeed to make a model of what success, practicing democracy, and market economy. Then that will give a good influence over Asian countries.

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

While we enjoy the benefits of living in the greatest democracy in the world, we must be ever conscious of the fact that none of the achievements or freedoms enjoyed in America would be possible without the price that has been paid for by our servicemen.

Asia's governments come in two broad varieties: young, fragile democracies - and older, fragile authoritarian regimes.

Democracy is too good to share with just anybody.

Democracy without respect for individual rights sucks. It's just ganging up against the weird kid, and I'm always the weird kid.

Without the power of the Industrial Union behind it, Democracy can only enter the State as the victim enters the gullet of the Serpent.

Criminality is always the result of poverty. Countries that experience such a fundamental change as we have - we had the apartheid regime and must now develop a multicultural democracy - must necessarily pass through a phase of high crime rates.

Remember one thing about democracy. We can have anything we want and at the same time, we always end up with exactly what we deserve.

I would like to see capital punishment suppressed in all democracies.

Global governance cannot be limited to the crafting of instruments related to the promotion of democracy. A key component must be the creation of fair and equitable rules to enhance the development prospects of developing countries.

I have said democracy and freedom do not work too well if you are hungry, if you are starving.

So I think one can say on empirical grounds - not because of some philosophical principle - that you can't have democracy unless you have a market economy.

The younger generation is essentially idealistic. This applies to the Iranian youth as well. In addition, the youth in Iran face certain difficulties... the Iranian youth need more freedom. They are struggling for more freedom and democracy. This commands great respect.

Let us not be defeated by the tyranny of the world financial markets that threaten peace and democracy everywhere.

In a constitutional democracy the moral content of law must be given by the morality of the framer or legislator, never by the morality of the judge.

Propaganda is to a democracy what violence is to a dictatorship.

Democracy actually requires that the whole public be able to see common problems and address them and step outside of their own sort of narrow self-interest to do so.

It is a paradox that far too few Americans participate in the wonderful ritual of democracy that we call Election Day.

Reagan never cottoned to dictators. He was pure in this notion in a true belief that democracy was the best solution in the world because it spoke to people's hopes and dreams and aspirations, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of speech.

Democracy can only spring from practising it early, and democratic action was not to expected from young people brought up under a close authoritarian system.

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

Mr. Speaker, democracy works best when the American electorate is engaged and informed.

But our energy woes are in many ways the result of classic market failures that can only be addressed through collective action, and government is the vehicle for collective action in a democracy.