Democratic Society Quotes

• The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Wisdom, Quality, Citizens

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• 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

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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

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• The Holocaust also shows us how a combination of events and attitudes can erode a society's democratic values.

  Tim Holden

  Attitude, Holocaust, Events

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• Party politics in modern democratic society means pandering to a wide variety of different groups and sympathizing with their often quite base motives, such as revenge, power, booty, and spoils, to maintain the necessary level of support.

  Randal Marlin

  Revenge, Party, Mean

  Randal Marlin (2013). “Propaganda and the Ethics of Persuasion - Second Edition”, p.159, Broadview Press

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• I believe that a guarantee of public access to government information is indispensable in the long run for any democratic society.... if officials make public only what they want citizens to know, then publicity becomes a sham and accountability meaningless.

  Sissela Bok

  Running, Believe, Government

  Sissela Bok (2011). “Secrets: On the Ethics of Concealment and Revelation”, p.179, Vintage

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• If a [democratic] society displays less brilliance than an aristocracy, there will also be less wretchedness; pleasures will be less outrageous and wellbeing will be shared by all; the sciences will be on a smaller scale but ignorance will be less common; opinions will be less vigorous and habits gentler; you will notice more vices and fewer crimes.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Ignorance, Vices, Aristocracy

  "Democracy in America". Book by Alexis de Tocqueville. Introduction, 1835.

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• Thoughtful criticism and close scrutiny of all government officials by the press and the public are an important part of our democratic society.

  Jimmy Carter

  Thoughtful, Government, Criticism

  Carter, Jimmy (1981). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Jimmy Carter, 1980-1981”, p.2890, Best Books on

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• An understandable hunger for potential clients tempts many [career counseling therapists] to overpromise, like creative writing teachers who, out of greed or sentimentality, sometimes imply that all of their students could one day produce worthwhile literature, rather than frankly acknowledging the troubling truth, anathema to a democratic society, that the great writer, like the contented worker, remains an erratic and anomalous event, immune to the methods of factory farming.

  Alain de Botton

  Teacher, Writing, Careers

  "The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work". Book by Alain de Botton, 2009.

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• I came to the United States because I valued living as a free person, one who is able to advocate in a democratic society. Unfortunately, the U.S. has been turning into a less free society, a police and surveillance state, especially after 9/11.

  Sami Al-Arian

  Surveillance State, Police, Able

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• The problem of education in a democratic society is to do away with ... dualism and to construct a course of studies which makes thought a guide of free practice for all and which makes leisure a reward of accepting responsibility for service, rather than a state of exemption from it.

  John Dewey

  Responsibility, Practice, Rewards

  John Dewey (2015). “Democracy and Education”, p.264, Sheba Blake Publishing

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• There is little hope for democracy if the hearts of men and women in democratic societies cannot be touched by a call to something greater than themselves.

  Margaret Thatcher

  Heart, Men, Democracy

  Margaret Thatcher (1989). “The revival of Britain: speeches on home and European affairs, 1975-1988”

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• The equality of rights of all citizens is the basic tenet of modern democratic societies.

  Jacques Maritain

  Rights, Citizens, Modern

  Jacques Maritain (1968). “Challenges and renewals: selected readings”

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• Procedure is the bone structure of a democratic society. Our scheme of law affords great latitude for dissent and opposition. It compels wide tolerance not only for their expression but also for the organization of people and forces to bring about the acceptance of the dissenter's claim....We have alternatives to violence.

  Abe Fortas

  Acceptance, Expression, Law

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• There is danger that totalitarian governments, not subject to vigorous popular debate, will underestimate the will and unity of democratic societies where vital interests are concerned.

  John F. Kennedy

  Government, Unity, Underestimate

  Kennedy, John F. (1962). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1961”, p.477, Best Books on

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• Artists and art institutions have to learn how to play hardball. A democratic society needs a democratic art and we have a right to demand it.

  Hans Haacke

  Art, Play, Needs

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• It is the political task of the social scientist — as of any liberal educator — continually to translate personal troubles into public issues, and public issues into the terms of their human meaning for a variety of individuals. It is his task to display in his work — and, as an educator, in his life as well — this kind of sociological imagination. And it is his purpose to cultivate such habits of mind among the men and women who are publicly exposed to him. To secure these ends is to secure reason and individuality, and to make these the predominant values of a democratic society.

  C. Wright Mills

  Men, Issues, Imagination

  C. Wright Mills (2000). “The Sociological Imagination”, p.187, Oxford University Press

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• I believe that the will of the people is resolved by a strong leadership. Even in a democratic society, events depend on a strong leadership with a strong power of persuasion, and not on the opinion of the masses.

  Yitzhak Shamir

  Inspiring, Leadership, Strong

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• Although I have made a fortune in the financial markets, I now fear that the untrammeled intensification of laissez-faire capitalism and the spread of market values into all areas of life is endangering our open and democratic society. The main enemy of the open society, I believe, is no longer the communist but the capitalist threat.

  George Soros

  Believe, Enemy, Society

  "The Capitalist Threat". www.theatlantic.com. February 1997.

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• The completion of the Iraqi cabinet with the appointment of three critical ministers is also confirmation of continued movement toward a just and democratic society in Iraq.

  Spencer Bachus

  Iraq, Three, Movement

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• When public men indulge themselves in abuse, when they deny others a fair trial, when they resort to innuendo and insinuation, to libel, scandal, and suspicion, then our democratic society is outraged, and democracy is baffled. It has no apparatus to deal with the boor, the liar, the lout, and the antidemocrat in general.

  J. William Fulbright

  Liars, Men, Indulge In

  J. William Fulbright's speech in the Senate on McCarthyism (February 2, 1954), as quoted in "Congressional Record", Volume 100 (p. 1105), 1954.

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• Generally speaking, the less privileged groups in democratic society, as they become aware of their interests and their political power, will be found to press for ever more state intervention in practically all fields.

  Gunnar Myrdal

  Political, Groups, Fields

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• We are in a democratic society. It's our job to question.

  Kurt Russell

  Jobs, Democratic

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