Democracy Quotes - Page 21

• Authority ought to be there only to serve its particular community by removing restrictions on freedom of expression and action under my golden rule of 'Do what you like so long as you don't impose it on others'. Authority's role should be in protecting the unwilling from the will of another. After that, they should push off and leave us alone.

  David Icke

  Expression, Long, Community

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• Freedom has nothing to do with having the right to vote for your oppressor; freedom is not having any form of oppression.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Vote, Oppression, Form

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• General rebellions and revolts of a whole people never were encouraged now or at any time. They are always provoked.

  Edmund Burke

  Freedom, People, Revolution

  Edmund Burke (1807). “The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke”, p.106

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• In America, you break law. In Soviet Russia, law breaks you! In America, you watch Big Brother. In Soviet Russia, Big Brother watch you!

  Yakov Smirnoff

  Brother, Russia, Law

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

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Kings, Feudal System, Retreat

  "Democracy in America".

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• The globalisation of information makes people aware of what they have - and have not. Problems and oppression are impossible to hide, and the new and powerful tools of information provide us with more opportunities than ever to react and act.

  Anna Lindh

  Powerful, Opportunity, People

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• The world has got more democracies than ever, and human rights are high on almost every country's agenda. Still, corruption and oppression are far too common threats to the democratic society. And we have seen a dramatic increase, the last 10-15 years, of ethnical conflicts and humanitarian crises with human rights violations as important elements., but also more of corruption. Human rights are praised more than ever - and violated as much as ever.

  Anna Lindh

  Country, Rights, Years

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• The very essence of democracy is that every person represents all the varied interests which compose the nation.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Essence, Interest, Persons

  Mahatma Gandhi (1959). “India of My Dreams”, p.24, Rajpal & Sons

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• Democracy disciplined and enlightened is the finest thing in the world. A democracy prejudiced, ignorant, superstitious, will land itself in chaos and may be self-destroyed.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Self, Land, Ignorant

  Mahatma Gandhi, Dennis Dalton (1995). “Gandhi: Selected Political Writings”, p.146, Hackett Publishing

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• Intolerance, discourtesy and harshness..... are taboo in all good society and are surely contrary to the spirit of democracy.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Spirit, Intolerance, Taboo

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• We say yes to the society of solidarity and democracy where free people together, in mutual respect and under mutual responsibility, shape a life where everyone has equal opportunities and equal value.

  Olof Palme

  Responsibility, Opportunity, People

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• History provides many examples of democracy crushed by people who said to be the champion of "genuine democracy" and "the people's real meaning". The realization about this may lead us to a defence position that conceals that democracy is an extraordinarily demanding way of rule. It must constantly find new ways to revitalize, to reach out to people and make them active. Dictatorships offers a machinery of obedience, closed and externally well-oiled. Democracy is based on fairness, openness and pulsating life. Therefore it must constantly be won again.

  Olof Palme

  Real, People, Champion

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• If you're not turned on by politics, politics will turn on you.

  Ralph Nader

  Turns, Ifs, Turn-on

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• Democracy, thus French revolution, was not invented by philosophic theory nor by the bourgeois leadership. It was discovered by the masses in their method of action.

  Raya Dunayevskaya

  Revolution, Action, Theory

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• The perspective that many today are beginning to see as fully realistic is that democracy in our country, and in our part of the world, will suffer the same fate as the Swedish monarchy did before. The democracy is beeing emptied of all power political content at the same time as the forms remain, treated with reverence and preservasion.

  Torbjorn Tannsjo

  Country, Fate, Perspective

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• The democratic thought is based on that 'ordinary people' are suitable to rule themselves.

  Torbjorn Tannsjo

  People, Ordinary, Democratic

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• To decide once every few years which members of the ruling class is to repress and crush the people through parliament-this is the real essence of bourgeois parliamentarism, not only in parliamentary- constitutional monarchies, but also in the most democratic republics.

  Vladimir Lenin

  Crush, Real, Years

  Vladimir Lenin (2017). “The State And Revolution (Annotated)”, p.55, Lulu Press, Inc

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• The absolute ruler may be a Nero, but he is sometimes a Titus or Marc Aurelius; the people is often Nero, but never Marc Aurelius.

  Antoine Rivarol

  People, Nero, May

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• Parliamentary government is simply a mild and disguised form of compulsion. We agree to try strength by counting heads instead of breaking heads, but the principle is exactly the same... The minority gives way not because it is convinced that it is wrong, but because it is convinced that it is a minority.

  James Fitzjames Stephen

  Government, Giving, Trying

  James Fitzjames Stephen (1991). “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: And Three Brief Essays”, p.70, University of Chicago Press

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• The size of the lie is a definite factor in causing it to be believed, for the vast masses of the nation are in the depths of their hearts more easily deceived than they are consciously and intentionally bad. The primitive simplicity of their minds renders them a more easy prey to a big lie than a small one, for they themselves often tell little lies but would be ashamed to tell a big one.

  Adolf Hitler

  Lying, Heart, Simplicity

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• It is a logical absurdity to equate democracy with freedom in the way that mainstream political philosophers and commentators typically do. A system where individuals and minorities are at the mercy of unconstrained majorities hardly constitutes freedom in any meaningful sense.

  Keith Preston

  Meaningful, Political, Minorities

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• Liberty of the people is not my liberty!

  Max Stirner

  People, Liberty

  Max Stirner, David Leopold (1995). “Stirner: The Ego and Its Own”, p.190, Cambridge University Press

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• We talk about democracy as if it's a safeguard for individual rights... Instead, it's become our way of intruding on rights, allegedly in the name of that most collectivist of concepts: The Common Good.

  Jonathan D. Morris

  Rights, Names, Way

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• The intellect of two thousand asses cannot bring forth a single man's thought.

  Muhammad Iqbal

  Men, Two, Ass

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• Democracy is a system where people are counted not weighed.

  Muhammad Iqbal

  People

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