Democracies Have Quotes - Page 5

• Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Freedom, Integrity, Adversity

  The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness foreword (1944)

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  Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.

  John Adams

  Suicide, Freedom, Suicidal

  Letter from John Adams to John Taylor, 15 Apr. 1814

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• Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.

  E. B. White

  Freedom, White, People

  New Yorker, 3 July 1943

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• Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Sarcastic, Freedom

  'The Soul of Man under Socialism'

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• Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

  C. S. Lewis

  Wisdom, Religious, Freedom

  "The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment". "God in the Dock". Book by C. S. Lewis, 1970.

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• The ultimate authority, wherever the derivative may be found, resides in the people alone, and that it will not depend merely on the comparative ambition or address of the different governments, whether either, or which of them, will be able to enlarge its sphere of jurisdiction at the expense of the other.

  James Madison

  Freedom, Gun, People

  "America's Founding Documents: The Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the United States Constitution, the Federalist Papers, and the Bill of Rights".

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• As long as the differences and diversities of mankind exist, democracy must allow for compromise, for accommodation, and for the recognition of differences.

  Eugene McCarthy

  Freedom, Differences, Long

  Eugene J. McCarthy (2004). “Parting Shots from My Brittle Bow: Reflections on American Politics and Life”, p.24, Fulcrum Publishing

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• The greatest task of democracy, its ritual and feast - is choice.

  H. G. Wells

  Freedom, Choices, Democracy

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• Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and Senators and Congressmen and Government officials but the voters of this country.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Country, Witty, Patriotic

  Franklin D. Roosevelt's Address at Marietta, Ohio, July 8, 1938.

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• Here is the crisis of the times as I see it: We talk about problems, issues, policies, but we don't talk about what democracy means - what it bestows on us - the revolutionary idea that it isn't just about the means of governance but the means of dignifying people so they become fully free to claim their moral and political agency.

  Bill Moyers

  Mean, Revolutionary Ideas, Issues

  "The Power of Democracy". Speech accepting the Public Intellectual Award of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation on February 07, 2007. "Moyers on Democracy". Book by Bill D. Moyers, p. 92, 2008.

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• The issuing power [of money] should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Taken, Government, People

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• Naturally the common people don't want war. . . but after all it is the leaders of a country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along. . .

  Hermann Goring

  Country, War, Simple

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

  Aristotle

  Freedom, Philosophical, Men

  Aristotle, Stephen Everson (1996). “Aristotle: The Politics and the Constitution of Athens”, p.72, Cambridge University Press

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• Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy. It is not true, in fact, and nowhere appears in history. Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of simple government, and when unchecked, produce the same effects of fraud, violence, and cruelty.

  John Adams

  Suicide, Selfish, Passion

  Letter to John Taylor, 15 Apr. 1814

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• The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections.

  Lord Acton

  Party, Majority Rule, Hype

  John Emerich Edward Dalberg, Lord Acton (2016). “The History of Freedom (and other Essays)”, p.103, Jazzybee Verlag

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  The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

  Winston Churchill

  Funny, Trust, Witty

  Winston S. Churchill (2013). “Churchill By Himself”, p.1079, RosettaBooks

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• The major western democracies are moving towards corporatism. Democracy has become a business plan, with a bottom line for every human activity, every dream, every decency, every hope. The main parliamentary parties are now devoted to the same economic policies - socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor - and the same foreign policy of servility to endless war. This is not democracy. It is to politics what McDonalds is to food.

  John Pilger

  Dream, War, Party

  "Breaking the great Australian silence". John Pilger's speech at the Sydney Opera House to mark his award of the Sydney Peace Prize, johnpilger.com. November 5, 2009.

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• Talk of democracy has little content when big business rules the life of the country through its control of the means of production, exchange, the press and other means of publicity, propaganda and communication.

  John Dewey

  Country, Communication, Mean

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• If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in government to the utmost.

  Aristotle

  Freedom, Equality, Government

  Aristotle (2016). “Politics”, p.131, Aristotle

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• Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.

  C. S. Lewis

  Peace, War, Government

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.45, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• If men were angels, no government would be necessary.

  James Madison

  Adversity, Angel, Men

  The Federalist no. 51 (1788)

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• It is a besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law. This is the usual form in which masses of men exhibit their tyranny.

  James F. Cooper

  Freedom, Men, Law

  "The American Democrat: Or, Hints on the Social and Civic Relations of the United States of America". Book by James Fenimore Cooper, 1838.

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• There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.

  John Adams

  Inspirational, Trust, Freedom

  'Notes for an Oration at Braintree' (Spring 1772)

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

  Benazir Bhutto

  Democracy, Terrorism, Force

  Interview With Zahid Hussain, newslinemagazine.com. July 2002.

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• A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.

  John F. Kennedy

  Christian, Peace, War

  Kennedy, John F. (1963). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1962”, p.163, Best Books on

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