Democracy Quotes

We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.

Abraham Lincoln

Freedom, Men, Democracies Have

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Our country's founders cherished liberty, not democracy.

Ron Paul

Country, Historical, Liberty

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What can the schools do to defend democracy? Should they preach a specific political doctrine? I believe they should not. If they are able to teach young people to have a critical mind and a socially oriented attitude, they will have done all that is necessary.

Albert Einstein

Attitude, Believe, Memorable

Albert Einstein (1995). “Essential Einstein”, Pomegranate

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Truth is relative. Truth is what you can make the voter believe is the truth. If you're smart enough, truth is what you make the voter think it is. That's why I'm a Democrat. I can make the Democratic voters think whatever I want them to.

James Carville

Truth, Smart, Believe

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

David Sedaris

Greek, Acropolis, Built

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A newspaper is a device for making the ignorant more ignorant and the crazy crazier.

H. L. Mencken

Freedom, Crazy, Ignorance

"A Mencken Chrestomathy". Book by H. L. Mencken, 1949.

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Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty.

Plato

Plato, Democracies Have, Political

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Democracy is nothing but the Tyranny of Majorities, the most abominable tyranny of all, for it is not based on the authority of a religion, not upon the nobility of a race, not on the merits of talents and of riches. It merely rests upon numbers and hides behind the name of the people.

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

Numbers, Race, Names

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The cornerstone of democracy rests on the foundation of an educated electorate.

Thomas Jefferson

Foundation, Educated, Electorate

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The common vice of democracy is disregard for morality.

Lord Acton

Vices, Morality, Common

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

William Blum

Inspirational, Life, Violence

William Blum (2006). “Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower”, p.13, Zed Books

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In politics, an organized minority is a political majority.

Jesse Jackson

Freedom, Political, Majority

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The ballot is stronger than the bullet.

Abraham Lincoln

Freedom, Democracies Have, Presidential

Speech, 19 May 1856

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The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.

John F. Kennedy

Inspirational, Ignorance, Voting

Vanderbilt University 90th Anniversary Convocation Address, delivered 18 May 1963, Vanderbilt University Stadium, Nashville Tennessee

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People often say that, in a democracy, decisions are made by a majority of the people. Of course, that is not true. Decisions are made by a majority of those who make themselves heard and who vote - a very different thing.

Walter Judd

People, Decision, Political

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Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Success, Education, Real

Roosevelt, Franklin D. (1941). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: F.D. Roosevelt, 1938, Volume 7”, p.538, Best Books on

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The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy.

Woodrow Wilson

Government, Hands, People

Woodrow Wilson, Ronald J. Pestritto (2005). “Woodrow Wilson: The Essential Political Writings”, p.117, Lexington Books

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If one meets a powerful person--Adolf Hitler, Joe Stalin or Bill Gates--ask them five questions: "What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you exercise it? To whom are you accountable? And how can we get rid of you?

Tony Benn

Exercise, Power, Accountability

Members in the Commons Hansard Debates, publications.parliament.uk. March 22, 2001.

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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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In a democracy, the majority of the citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority.

Edmund Burke

Freedom, Exercise, Majority

Edmund Burke (1790). “Reflections on the Revolution in France: And on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. In a Letter Intended to Have Been Sent to a Gentleman in Paris”, p.186

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If pigs could vote, the man with the slop bucket would be elected swineherd every time, no matter how much slaughtering he did on the side.

Orson Scott Card

Men, Pigs, Politics

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The job of a citizen is to keep his mouth open.

Gunter Grass

Jobs, Freedom, Democracies Have

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Democracy without morality is impossible.

Jack Kemp

Freedom, Morality, Impossible

"From Contagion To Outbreak: The Death Of Leadership" by Alicia Bassuk, www.huffingtonpost.com. August 9, 2016.

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He who allows oppression shares the crime.

Desiderius Erasmus

Perseverance, Freedom, Oppression

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An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.

Plutarch

Freedom, Tyrants, Economic Inequality

"When Inequality Isn't" by John Mauldin, www.forbes.com. March 29, 2014.

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