Quotes About Democracy

Ideology must be our foundation as it was for the Bolsheviks, but the new archives show that the personalities and patronage of a minuscule oligarchy were the essence of politics under Lenin and Stalin, as they were under the Romanov emperors—and just as they are today under the 'managed democracy' of twenty-first-century Russia.

Any grand new dictionary ought itself to be a democratic product, a book that demonstrated the primacy of individual freedoms, of the notion that one could use words freely, as one liked, without hard and fast rules of lexical conduct.

It Can't Happen Here.

The best argument against democracy is a five minute talk with the average voter.

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.

Frankly, I'd love to see a multiparty system, like we have in some of our European countries. But I'm not sure how to get there.

With a library you are free, not confined by temporary political climates. It is the most democratic of institutions because no one - but no one at all - can tell you what to read and when and how.

I love voting day. I love the sight of my fellow citizens lining up to make their voices heard.

Like all idolatries, democratism substitutes a false god for the real, a love of process for a love of country.

We should be supportive of the president and supportive of rights of all in a pluralistic democracy that we're called to love. And we live our faith; we don't legislate our faith.

Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power." James Madison, fourth President of the United States of America. Served 1809–1817. Known as the "Father of the Constitution" for contributions to the drafting of the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

When even one American—who has done nothing wrong—is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth—then all Americans are in peril." Harry S. Truman, thirty-third President of the United States of America. Served 1945–1953.

In the military, we have always had a healthy disrespect for democracy.

It's a lot easier to blow up trains than to make them run on time. What is it that Mister Churchill used to say? "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.

You spoiled children think that democracy is a God-given right! You expect it, you demand it! Well, now you're going to have a chance to practice it!

You can blame the politicians, the businessmen, the generals, the machine... But really, if you're looking to blame someone: blame me. I'm the American System. I'm the machine. That's the price of living in a democracy: we all gotta take the rap.

I believe that there lives a burning desire in the most sequestered private heart of every American, a desire to belong to a great country. I believe that every citizen wants to stand on the world stage and represent a noble country where the mighty do not always crush the weak and the dream of a democracy is not the sole possession of the strong.

I'm not scared, though. Norman has kind of thick glasses, and I bet he couldn't actually hit anything, even with a machine-gun, which even a lunatic like Norman is allowed to buy in this country thanks to our totally unrestrictive gun laws, which Michael Moscovitz says in his webzine will ultimately result in the demise of democracy as we know it.

To paraphrase Winston Churchill, it seems that law-law is always better than war-war. This legal supremacism has now developed into an industry that threatens to usurp the democratic process itself. Instead of being governed by the rule of law, we increasingly have rule by lawyers. Instead of being the vehicle to convey a nation's values, law has increasingly become a moral end in itself.

Yes, she had seen Alex's temper flare over his disappointment with a lack of his own regiment to command, but she saw that as merely the fighting spirit of an ambitious and confident leader. Yet, wasn't that what appealed most to her about him? A spirit and impetuousness that could match her own and challenge her to be better herself in this new democracy? A man who could honor her own values?

see first-hand the ways that democratic education is being undermined as the interests of big business and corporate capitalism encourage students to see education solely as a means to achieve material success. Such thinking makes acquiring information more important than gaining knowledge or learning how to think critically.

The principle of equality, which is at the core of democratic values, has very little meaning in a world in which global oligarchy is taking over.

Young progressives committed to social justice who had found it easy to maintain radical politics when they were living on the edge, on the outside, did not want to do the hard work of changing and reorganizing our existing system in ways that would affirm the values of peace and love, or democracy and justice. They fell into despair. And that despair made capitulation to the existing social order the only place of comfort.

When a government turns from following the will of its people to willing its people to follow — acting according to its own prerogatives — it ceases to be a representative government and instead has transformed into something else. One