Democratic Society Quotes - Page 5

• There must be equality of all men before God and in a democratic society. Now that's one of the great achievements.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Men, Democratic, Achievement

  Source: www.hrc.utexas.edu

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• Setting aside labels, I am somebody who believes that government in a democratic society should be representing the needs of the vast majority of the people who are middle-class and working families.

  Bernie Sanders

  Believe, Government, Class

  Source: www.chicagotribune.com

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• I believe that one of the most important institutions in a democratic society is a free press.

  Jeremy Scahill

  Believe, Important, Institutions

  Source: collider.com

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• In a democratic society, the only treason is silence.

  Anna Quindlen

  Silence, Democratic, Treason

  Anna Quindlen (2004). “Loud and Clear”, p.102, Random House

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• The sibling society is the flattening out of the previously democratic society.

  Robert Bly

  Sibling, Democratic

  Source: www.utne.com

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• If our courts lose their authority and their rulings are no longer respected, there will be no one left to resolve the divisive issues that can rip the social fabric apart ... The courts are a safety valve without which no democratic society can survive.

  Rose Bird

  Rip, Issues, Safety

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• The average man's love of liberty is nine-tenths imaginary, exactly like his love of sense, justice and truth... It takes a special sort of man to understand and enjoy liberty - and he is usually an outlaw in democratic societies.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, Average, Special

  Baltimore Evening Sun, February 12, 1923.

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• Politics in a democratic society should not be treated like a baseball game, a game show or a soap opera. The times are too serious for that.

  Bernie Sanders

  Baseball, Games, Soap

  Bernie Sanders (2016). “Our Revolution: A Future to Believe in”, p.101, Profile Books

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• In pluralistic, democratic societies, there is the freedom to adopt the religion of your choice. This is good. This lets curious people like you run around on the loose!

  Dalai Lama

  Running, People, Choices

  Source: www.motherjones.com

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• Our democratic values also include - and our national security demands - open and transparent government. Some information obviously needs to be protected. And since his first days in office, President Obama has worked to strike the proper balance between the security the American people deserve and the openness our democratic society expects.

  John O. Brennan

  Government, People, Office

  "Strengthening our Security by Adhering to our Values and Laws". John O. Brennan's Speech at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. September 16, 2011.

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• Of course, most luxury goods in China are for corrupted officials and their relatives. And that made China become the biggest luxury-goods market. In this kind of dictatorship, in this kind of totalitarian society, it is easy to make deals that you cannot make in a democratic society.

  Ai Weiwei

  Luxury, Kind, Easy

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• I grew up in a dictatorship, so I really appreciate democracy. I think democracy isn't just a random thing that's around - a democratic society needs the involvement of everybody.

  Paul van Dyk

  Thinking, Appreciate, Democracy

  "The Evolution of EDM Pioneer Paul van Dyk". Interview with Samantha Oltman, www.motherjones.com. January 23, 2012.

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• Democratic societies can't force people. Therefore they have to control what they think.

  Noam Chomsky

  Thinking, People, Force

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• Markets are a social construction, they're made from institutions. We in a democratic society create markets, we constitute markets, we bring them into existence, and we shouldn't turn markets over to a narrow group of people who regulate them and run them in their interests, rather they should be run democratically for the common good.

  Douglas Massey

  Running, People, Groups

  Source: www.motherjones.com

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• It is a mistake - as so many over-centralized socialist societies have discovered - to try to eliminate money as an incentive. Money is one incentive among many, and has its place. But to put no limits on the impulse to accumulate money obsessively is as destructive as to place no limits on the impulse to commit violence. A viable democratic society needs a ceiling and a floor with regard to the distribution of wealth and assets.

  Philip Slater

  Mistake, Trying, Ceilings

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• I am always suspicious of the formulation that "politics" has prevented a great idea from being enacted by government. Politics IS government, in a democratic society. It's a challenge for school reformers, like reformers in any realm, to build a popular constituency for their work. If the people it's supposed to benefit vote against it, that tells me that the person pushing reform lacks political skill. And political skill is a good thing.

  Nicholas Lemann

  School, Government, Skills

  "Ask the Author Live: Nicholas Lemann on Higher Education". Live chat, www.newyorker.com. September 20, 2010.

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• In our democratic society, the library stands for hope, for learning, for progress, for literacy, for self-improvement and for civic engagement. The library is a symbol of opportunity, citizenship, equality, freedom of speech and freedom of thought, and hence, is a symbol for democracy itself.

  Vartan Gregorian

  Opportunity, Self, Freedom Of Speech

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• With Taiwan, it took about 40 years to go from an authoritarian to a democratic society.

  Ma Ying-jeou

  Years, Taiwan, Democratic

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• The fact is that the average man's love of liberty is nine-tenths imaginary, exactly like his love of sense, justice and truth... Liberty is not a thing for the great masses of men. It is the exclusive possession of a small and disreputable minority, like knowledge, courage and honor. It takes a special sort of man to understand and enjoy liberty - and he is usually an outlaw in democratic societies.

  H. L. Mencken

  Love, Courage, Men

  "The Baltimore Sun" Newspaper, February 12, 1923.

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• The interest in encouraging freedom of expression in a democratic society outweighs any theoretical but unproven benefit of censorship.

  John Paul Stevens

  Expression, Benefits, Censorship

  "ACLU Hails Supreme Court Victory in Internet Censorship Challenge". www.aclu.org. June 27, 1997.

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• I don't see anything immoral, unethical or illegal for a person in a democratic society to be able to spend their own money on the health care of themself or a loved one.

  Brian Day

  Care, Able, Loved Ones

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• We must face the ultimate contradiction that our free and democratic society was made possible by massive slave labor.

  David Brion Davis

  Slave Labor, Faces, Contradiction

  David Brion Davis (2008). “Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World”, p.6, Oxford University Press

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• One needs to know what the hierarchy of values are from which one takes inspiration, and in a democratic society this is the subject of continuous democratic debate.

  Rocco Buttiglione

  Inspiration, Needs, Hierarchy

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• I was resolved to sustain and preserve in my college the bite of the mind, the chance to stand face to face with truth, the good life lived in a small, various, highly articulate and democratic society.

  Virginia Gildersleeve

  Good Life, College, Mind

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• Democratic societies can no longer give religious fanatics a free hand to abuse and murder non believers. Such action betrays contempt for the basic human rights which animate any democracy with meaning.

  Armstrong Williams

  Religious, Rights, Hands

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