Democratic Socialism Quotes

• Call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all God's children.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Wisdom, Country, Children

  Thomas F. Jackson, Martin Luther King (Jr.) (2007). “From Civil Rights to Human Rights: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Struggle for Economic Justice”, p.230, University of Pennsylvania Press

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  Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

  Winston Churchill

  Philosophy, Ignorance, Envy

  Speech at the Scottish Unionist Conference, Perth, Scotland, May 28, 1948.

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  Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Patriotic, Equality, Differences

  "Discours prononcé à l'assemblée constituante le 12 Septembre 1848 sur la question du droit au travail". Oeuvres complètes, Volume IX, p. 546, 1866.

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• No theory of government was ever given a fairer test or a more prolonged experiment in a democratic country than democratic socialism received in Britain. Yet it was a miserable failure in every respect... To cure the British disease with socialism was like trying to cure leukemia with leeches.

  Margaret Thatcher

  Country, Government, Trying

  "The Downing Street Years". Book by Margaret Thatcher, October 18, 1993.

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• That democratic socialism, the great utopia of the last few generations, is not only unachievable, but that to strive for it produces something so utterly different that few of those who wish it would be prepared to accept the consequences, many will not believe until the connection has been laid bare in all its aspects.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Believe, Wish, Connections

  "The Road to Serfdom". Book by Friedrich Hayek, Ch. 2 : The Great Utopia, 1940 - 1943.

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• What democratic socialism is about is saying that it is immoral and wrong that the top one-tenth of 1 percent in this country own almost 90 percent - almost - own almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent. That it is wrong, today, in a rigged economy, that 57 percent of all new income is going to the top 1 percent. That when you look around the world, you see every other major country providing health care to all people as a right, except the United States.

  Bernie Sanders

  Country, People, United States

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

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• I did a lot of reading. I read about democratic socialism. And I read about the efforts of people for such a long time trying to create a society in which all people can live with dignity. And that's kind of what I believe.

  Bernie Sanders

  Believe, Reading, Long

  "Bernie Sanders On Being Jewish And A Democratic Socialist". "Morning Edition" with Steve Inskeep and Renee Montagne, www.npr.org. November 6, 2015.

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• Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly against totalitarianism and for democratic Socialism as I understand it.

  George Orwell

  Serious Work, Lines, Thrive

  George Orwell (1970). “A Collection of Essays”, p.314, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• There is only one hope for mankind - and that is democratic Socialism.

  Aneurin Bevan

  Socialism, Democratic, Mankind

  Aneurin Bevan's Statement on his resignation in House of Commons, hansard.millbanksystems.com. April 23, 1951.

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• I have one of the strongest records in fighting for senior citizens. I led the effort to prevent cuts to Social Security. But I think for some seniors, they remember the "evil empire" of the Soviet Union. They conflated the term "democratic socialism" with communism.

  Bernie Sanders

  Senior, Fighting, Cutting

  Source: billmoyers.com

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• Now a great debate has been born. The thesis is Democratic Socialism. The antithesis is free-market capitalism. The Obama Democrats have posed the challenge. It is now up to the Republicans to pick it up and fight along these lines.

  Dick Morris

  Fighting, Challenges, Lines

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• I see myself, in terms of the question of capitalism, as I would support democratic socialism over a capitalist system, because any approach... or participatory economics, which is another great model that people like Michael Albert are putting out there... any system that encourages us to think about interdependency, and to be able to use the world's resources in a wiser way, for the good of the whole, would be better for the world than capitalism.

  Bell Hooks

  Thinking, People, Support

  Source: nefac.net

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• What is the most effective, practical way of raising the wealth of nations? What causes wealth? I have come to think that the dream of democratic socialism is inferior to the dream of democratic capitalism, and that the latter's superiority in actual practice is undeniable.

  Michael Novak

  Dream, Thinking, Practice

  Michael Novak (1991). “The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism”, p.26, Rowman & Littlefield

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• What if the Soviet intervention was a blessing in disguise? It saved the myth that if the Soviets were not to intervene, there would have been some flowering authentic democratic socialism and so on. I'm a little bit more of a pessimist there. I think that the Soviets - it's a very sad lesson - by their intervention, saved the myth.

  Slavoj Žižek

  Thinking, Blessing, What If

  "'Everybody in the World Except US Citizens Should Be Allowed to Vote and Elect the American Government' - Leading Intellectual Slavoj Žižek". "Democracy Now!" with Amy Goodman, www.democracynow.org. March 11, 2008.

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