Democratic Rights Quotes

• I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities.

  Nelson Mandela

  Wisdom, Opportunity, Equality

  Statement at trial, Johannesburg, South Africa, 20 Apr. 1964

  36 Copy quote

  Show source

• I think that there’s going to be a rush to judgment on civil liberties, and a clamping down, a suspension of our democratic rights. And I believe that those who are good Americans would want to see this not happen and that we debate how to find a balance between the public safety and the protection of civil liberties.

  Barbara Lee

  Believe, Thinking, Rights

  "Alone on the Hill". Interview with Bill Hogan, www.motherjones.com. September 20, 2001.

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• A community is democratic only when the humblest and weakest person can enjoy the highest civil, economic, and social rights that the biggest and most powerful possess.

  A. Philip Randolph

  Powerful, Struggle, Rights In America

  "Voter Suppression Is Treasonous" by Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm, www.huffingtonpost.com. May 22, 2012.

  176 Copy quote

  Show source

• Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.

  John F. Kennedy

  4th Of July, Responsibility, Past

  John F. Kennedy's Speech at Loyola College Alumni Banquet, Baltimore, Maryland, www.jfklibrary.org. February 18, 1958.

  348 Copy quote

  Show source

• If we desire a society without discrimination, then we must not discriminate against anyone in the process of building this society. If we desire a society that is democratic, then democracy must become a means as well as an end.

  Bayard Rustin

  Mean, Desire, Democracy

  186 Copy quote

• During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.

  Nelson Mandela

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Success

  FaceBook post by Nelson Mandela from Apr 20, 2014

  100 Copy quote

  Show source

• Democracy is the common pursuit of mankind, and all countries must earnestly protect the democratic rights of the people.

  Hu Jintao

  Country, Rights, People

  8 Copy quote

• Let us not despair but act. Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past - let us accept our own responsibility for the future.

  John F. Kennedy

  4th Of July, Politics Today, Answers

  Speech at Loyola College Alumni Banquet, Baltimore, Maryland, on February 18, 1958. "John F. Kennedy Quotations: Profiles in Courage Quotations", www.jfklibrary.org.

  59 Copy quote

  Show source

• Democratic principles are the result of equality of condition.

  Mercy Otis Warren

  Women, Equality, Hymns

  Mercy Otis Warren (1805). “History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution: Interspersed with Biographical, Political and Moral Observations. In Three Volumes”, p.22

  34 Copy quote

  Show source

• In its proper meaning equality before the law means the right to participate in the making of the laws by which one is governed, a constitution which guarantees democratic rights to all sections of the population, the right to approach the court for protection or relief in the case of the violation of rights guaranteed in the constitution, and the right to take part in the administration of justice as judges, magistrates, attorneys-general, law advisers and similar positions.

  Nelson Mandela

  Mean, Rights, Law

  Nelson Mandela (1973). “No Easy Walk to Freedom”, p.127, Heinemann

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Conventions are, by nature, a party. I mean, that's why people become delegates. They come from all over the world to exercise their democratic rights and to party.

  Rob Lowe

  Party, Mean, Exercise

  "New Again: Rob Lowe". Interview with Mike Sager, www.interviewmagazine.com. September 7, 2016.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• We have to build movements in the face of trade retaliation on the basis of people's democratic rights, on the basis of an ancient heritage of collective innovation. We work from the grassroots all the way to the national government and the World Trade Organization. It basically means being very multidimensional in our campaigns. And that is where part of the fun is. It involves both resistance and creativity. It involves constructive action, while at the same time saying "no."

  Vandana Shiva

  Fun, Creativity, Mean

  Source: scottlondon.com

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• Being born in Cuba, a country where freedom of speech is non-existent, it's startling to observe how Venezuela, where I was happily raised, is fast becoming Cuba's mirror image: Dismantling of fundamental democratic rights deserved by its people and citizens of the world.

  Maria Conchita Alonso

  Country, Mirrors, Rights

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• This independent Negro movement is able to intervene with terrific force upon the general social and political life of the nation, despite the fact that it is waged under the banner of democratic rights ... [and] is able to exercise a powerful influence upon the revolutionary proletariat, that it has got a great contribution to make to the development of the proletariat in the United States, and that it is in itself a constituent part of the struggle for socialism.

  C. L. R. James

  Powerful, Struggle, Independent

  12 Copy quote

• Popular privileges are consistent with a state of society in which there is great inequality of position. Democratic rights, on the contrary, demand that there should be equality of condition as the fundamental basis of the society they regulate.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Rights, Society, Fundamentals

  Benjamin Disraeli (Earl of Beaconsfield) (1886). “Wit and Wisdom of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield: Collected from His Writings and Speeches”

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Any unarmed people are slaves, or are subject to slavery at any given moment. If the guns are taken out of the hands of the people and only the pigs have guns, then it's off to the concentration camps, the gas chambers, or whatever the fascists in America come up with. One of the democratic rights of the United States, the Second Amendment to the Constitution, gives the people the right to bear arms. However, there is a greater right; the right of human dignity that gives all men the right to defend themselves.

  Huey Newton

  Taken, Men, Gun

  338 Copy quote

• In the West, people pride themselves on being the defenders of democratic rights and the champions of freedom. But if the Western world really cares for the benevolence of the whole world, it will have to turn to introspection.

  Nirmala Srivastava

  Yoga, Pride, Rights

  4 Copy quote