Democracy Quotes - Page 38

• In almost every case (where the United States has fought wars) our overwhelming commitment to freedom, democracy and human rights has required us to support those regimes that would deny freedom, democracy and human rights to their own people.

  Gore Vidal

  War, Commitment, Rights

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• Unless the schools provide our children with a vision of human possibility that enlightens and empowers them with knowledge and taste, they will simply play their role in someone else's marketing schemes. Unless they understand deeply the sources of our democracy, they will take it for granted and fail to exercise their rights and responsibilities.

  Diane Ravitch

  Children, School, Responsibility

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• Even if we accept, as the basic tenet of true democracy, that one moron is equal to one genius, is it necessary to go a further step and hold that two morons are better than one genius?

  Leo Szilard

  Two, Genius, Steps

  "The Voice of the Dolphins: And Other Stories". Book by Leo Szilard, 1961.

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• After all, we didn't bring democracy to Germany in 1945; Hitler destroyed democracy there first.

  Brent Scowcroft

  Germany, Firsts, Destroyed

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• America has never seen itself as a national state like all others, but rather as an experiment in human freedom and democracy.

  Brent Scowcroft

  America, States, Experiments

  "The more intelligence I read, the more conservative I become" by George Brandis, www.theguardian.com. April 18, 2014.

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• I think clearly the United States, as well as other western nations, should stand by their commitments to human rights and democracy and should try to influence other countries to move in that direction.

  Samuel P. Huntington

  Country, Moving, Commitment

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• Because of my parents' love of democracy, we came to America after being driven twice from our home in Czechoslovakia - first by Hitler and then by Stalin.

  Madeleine Albright

  Home, America, Parent

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• I'm for democracy, but imposing democracy is an oxymoron. People have to choose democracy, and it has to come up from below.

  Madeleine Albright

  People, Come Up, Oxymoron

  "QUESTIONS FOR MADELEINE ALBRIGHT; State of the Secretary". Interview with Deborah Solomon, query.nytimes.com. April 23, 2006.

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• For centuries, America has led the world on a long march toward freedom and democracy. Let's reclaim our clean energy leadership and lead the world toward clean energy independence.

  John Garamendi

  America, Long, Independence

  "Electric Current Events: Middle East Revolutions and the Need to Revolutionize American Clean Energy" by Rep. John Garamendi, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 1, 2011.

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• In order for a world-around democracy to prosper, world society must learn how to prosper.

  R. Buckminster Fuller

  Order, World

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• Democracy is not compatible with financial oligarchy, with discrimination against Blacks and outrages by the Ku Klux Klan.

  Che Guevara

  Ku Klux Klan, Oligarchy, Financial

  Ernesto Che Guevara (2013). “The Awakening of Latin America: A Classic Anthology of Che Guevara's Writing on Latin America”, p.256, Ocean Press

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• No famine has ever taken place in the history of the world in a functioning democracy.

  Amartya Sen

  Taken, World, Famine

  Amartya Sen (2011). “The Idea of Justice”, p.343, Harvard University Press

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• The novel as a form is usually seen to be moral if its readers consider freedom, individuality, democracy, privacy, social connection, tolerance and hope to be morally good, but it is not considered moral if the highest values of a society are adherence to rules and traditional mores, the maintenance of hierarchical relationships, and absolute ideas of right and wrong. Any society based on the latter will find novels inherently immoral and subversive.

  Jane Smiley

  Ideas, Tolerance, Individuality

  Jane Smiley (2014). “Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel”, p.129, Faber & Faber

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• They think democracy - I used to say "damn the democracy", because it's not a stable government.

  Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

  Thinking, Government, Used

  "Interview With Maharishi Mahesh Yogi". "Larry King Weekend", transcripts.cnn.com. May 12, 2002.

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• Community connectedness is not just about warm fuzzy tales of civic triumph. In measurable and well-documented ways, social capital makes an enormous difference in our lives...Social capital makes us smarter, healthier, safer, richer, and better able to govern a just and stable democracy.

  Robert D. Putnam

  Life, Change, Differences

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• We’ve learned that it will take more than one generation to bring about change. The fight for civil rights has developed into a broader concern for human rights, and that encompasses a great many people and countries. Those of us who live in a democracy have a responsibility to be the voice for those whose voices are stilled.

  Mary Travers

  Country, Responsibility, Fighting

  "Mary Travers of folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary dead at 72". www.cnn.com. September 17, 2009.

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• If x is the population of the United States and y is the degree of imbecility of the average American, then democracy is the theory that x times y is less than y

  H. L. Mencken

  Average, United States, Degrees

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• What’s happened is that, almost overnight, we’ve switched from democracy in real-property recording to oligarchy in real-property recording. There was no court case behind this, no statute from Congress or the state legislatures. It was accomplished in a private corporate decision. The banks just did it.

  Christopher Peterson

  Real, Decision, Oligarchy

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• Half a world away nations that once lived under oppression and tyranny are now budding democracies due in large part to America 's leadership and the sacrifices of our military.

  Bob Riley

  Leadership, Military, Sacrifice

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• The cloud services companies of all sizes; the cloud is for everyone. The cloud is a democracy.

  Marc Benioff

  Clouds, Size, Cloud Computing

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• We like democracy because why? The pathologies of the U.S. version are so obvious in the aftermath of the latest averted crisis that we need to ask ourselves whether it’s worth it - and why electoral democracy hasn’t self-destructed before. Should Tunisians or Egyptians opt for the Chinese model, where rational autocrats may restrict rights, but no one threatens to blow up world markets in the name of an 18th-century tax protest?

  Noah Feldman

  Blow, Rights, Self

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• Such a scheme.. the betrayal of the national democracy of Industrial Ulster, would mean a carnival of reaction both North and South, would set back the wheels of progress, would destroy the oncoming unity of the Irish labour movement and paralyse all advanced movements while it lasted.

  James Connolly

  Betrayal, Mean, Labour Movement

  James Connolly, Peter Berresford-Ellis (1988). “James Connolly: Selected Writings”, p.275, Pluto Press

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• Under a socialist system every nation will be the supreme arbiter of its own destinies, national and international; will be forced into no alliance against its will, but will have its independence guaranteed and its freedom respected by the enlightened self-interest of the socialist democracy of the world.

  James Connolly

  Destiny, Self, Independence

  James Connolly, Peter Berresford-Ellis (1988). “James Connolly: Selected Writings”, p.34, Pluto Press

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• In our time, the great task for libertarians is to find an escape from politics in all its forms—from the totalitarian and fundamentalist catastrophes to the unthinking demos that guides so-called ‘social democracy.’ . . . We are in a deadly race between politics and technology. . . . The fate of our world may depend on the effort of a single person who builds or propagates the machinery of freedom that makes the world safe for capitalism.

  Peter Thiel

  Fate, Technology, Our World

  "The Education of a Libertarian". www.cato-unbound.org. April 13, 2009.

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• I don't believe in democracy. In the second place, neither did our white forefathers. I believe, as they did, in a republican authoritarian republic with a limited electorate - just like the one the writers of our Constitution meant this country to be. When these white Christian patriots sat down to write the Declaration of Independence, there were no black citizens for them to worry about.

  George Lincoln Rockwell

  Christian, Country, Believe

  Interview with Alex Haley, Playboy, April 1966.

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