Democracy Quotes - Page 30

• A democracy,- that is a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people; of course, a government of the principles of eternal justice, the unchanging law of God; for shortness' sake I will call it the idea of Freedom.

  Theodore Parker

  Government, Law, Ideas

  Theodore Parker (1871). “Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional Sermons”, p.41

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• Democracy, as I understand it, requires me to sacrifice myself for the masses, not to them. Who knows not that if you would save the people, you must often oppose them?

  John C. Calhoun

  Sacrifice, People, Understanding

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• The rule of law should be respected so that the basic structure of our democracy is maintained and further strengthened.

  Lal Bahadur Shastri

  Law, Structure, Should

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• America is an outlier in the world of democracies when it comes to the structure and conduct of elections.

  Thomas E. Mann

  America, World, Election

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• How do we protect the soul of democracy against bad theology in service of an imperial state?

  Bill Moyers

  Political, Soul, States

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• The peasants have seen the future - Greece and France - and concluded that it does not work. Hence their opposition to Obama's proudly transformational New Foundation agenda. Their logic is impeccable: Only the most blinkered intellectual could be attempting to introduce social democracy to America precisely when the world's foremost exemplar of that model - Europe - is in chaotic meltdown.

  Charles Krauthammer

  America, Europe, Political

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• There are two kinds of fascists: fascists and anti-fascists.

  Ennio Flaiano

  Two, Political, Kind

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• In the future, there will be fewer but better Russians.

  Joseph Stalin

  Fewer

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• Man is a thinking animal, a talking animal, a toolmaking animal, a building animal, a political animal, a fantasizing animal. But, in the twilight of a civilization he is chiefly a taxpaying animal.

  Hugh MacLennan

  Twilight, Animal, Men

  Hugh MacLennan (2011). “Voices in Time”, p.182, McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

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• Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put up a wall to keep our people in.

  John F. Kennedy

  Wall, People, Perfect

  Ich bin ein Berliner (I am a 'Berliner'), delivered 26 June 1963, West Berlin

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• They say it's the responsibility of the media to look at government - especially the President - with a microscope. I don't argue with that, but when they use a proctoscope, it's going too far.

  Richard M. Nixon

  Responsibility, Government, Media

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• I would not like to be a political leader in Russia. They never know when they're being taped.

  Richard M. Nixon

  Russia, Leader, Political

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• On why I don't trust democracy without extremely powerful systems of accountability and recall What seems to be generosity is often only disguised ambition - which despises small interests to gain great ones.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Powerful, Ambition, Generosity

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• Now majority rule is a precious, sacred thing worth dying for. But like other precious, sacred things .... it's not only worth dying for; it can make you wish you were dead. Imagine if all life were determined by majority rule. Every meal would be a pizza.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Majority Rule, Cynical, Wish

  P.J. O'Rourke (2015). “Thrown Under the Omnibus”, p.207, Atlantic Books Ltd

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• Democracy: a festival of mediocrity.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Cynical, Mediocrity, Festivals

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• An Honest politician will not be tolerated by a democracy unless he is very stupid ... because only a very stupid man can honestly share the prejudices of more than half the nation.

  Bertrand Russell

  Stupid, Men, Cynical

  Bertrand Russell (1971). “Ladislas Reymont: Romain Rolland ; Bertrand Russell”

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• What a liberal really wants is to bring about change that will not in any way endanger his position.

  Stokely Carmichael

  Cynical, Want, Way

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• On the much revered family of North American mythology - and a metaphor for the Ruling Alliance:
  Sacred family! .... The supposed home of all the virtues, where innocent children are tortured into their first falsehoods, where wills are broken by parental tyranny, and self-respect smothered by crowded, jostling egos.

  August Strindberg

  Children, Home, Self

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• It is intolerable that around 1 in 5 of the world's adults are illiterate. How can we build equitable information societies or thriving democracies if so many remain without the basic tools of literacy?

  Koichiro Matsuura

  Education, Adults, Tools

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• It has been hard to muster the resources to support fledgling democracies and to intervene on behalf of the most desperate. The AIDS orphans in Uganda, the refugee fleeing Zimbabwe, the young woman who has been trafficked into the sex trade in Southeast Asia. It has been hard, yet this assistance together with the compassionate work of private charities, people of conscience and people of faith, has shown the soul of our country.

  Condoleezza Rice

  Country, Sex, Zimbabwe

  Condoleezza Rice's Speech at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, www.foxnews.com. August 29, 2012.

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• The threats against democracy today are in general completely normal. They walk around in costume and tie.

  Carl B. Hamilton

  Ties, Today, Costumes

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• Democracy is better than tyranny.

  Periander

  Military, Tyranny

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• In a democracy only will the freeman of nature design to dwell.

  Plato

  Military, Design, Freeman

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• We have come a long way in America because of Martin Luther King, Jr. He led a disciplined, nonviolent revolution under the rule of law, a revolution of values, a revolution of ideas. We've come a long way, but we still have a distance to go before all of our citizens embrace the idea of a truly interracial democracy, what I like to call the Beloved Community, a nation at peace with itself.

  John Lewis

  Kings, Distance, Beloved Community

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• Fantastically, Australia is still the lucky country. We have the flawed but necessary gift of democracy. Currently there is a debate about whether there is racism in Australia. There is racism in every country in the world. Relatively speaking, we are tolerant of one another. We have a large and giving land and, if you haven't seen its beauty, you haven't seen a beauty precious to the earth.

  Martin Flanagan

  Beauty, Country, Land

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