Quotes About Democracy

Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.

That liberty [is pure] which is to go to all, and not to the few or the rich alone. (to Horatio Gates, 1798)

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.

wherever the people are well informed they can be trusted with their own government

The same political parties which now agitate the U.S. have existed thro' all time. Whether the power of the people or that of the "aristoi" should prevail were questions which kept the states of Greece and Rome in eternal convulsions, as they now schismatize every people whose minds and mouths are not shut up by the gag of a despot.

Democracy is eternal and human. It dignifies the human being; it respects humanity.

Let me tell you the whole truth: if ever Fascism should come to America, it will come in the name of freedom.

Richard Wagner once declared that civilization disappears before music like mist before the sun. he never dreamed that one day, for its part, music would disappear before civilization, before democracy, like mist before the sun.

Freedom must be distinguished from democracy, with which it is often confused.

millions of people died in the war "to make the world safe for democracy"—a war that led to autocratic dynasties being replaced by totalitarian dictatorships that slaughtered far more of their own people than the dynasties had?

Bajo un gobierno electo popularmente, los incentivos políticos son hacer lo que es popular, a pesar de sus posibles consecuencias negativas, o hacer algo tan popular como sea posible

High voter turnout, which some equate with a healthy democracy, has been in Nigeria (and in some other countries) an indication instead of a fever pitch of political polarization.

Since democratic elections are always held in the short term, politicians have every incentive to extract as much wealth as possible from the fixed capital under their jurisdiction, whether through taxes, the imposition of charges on property or of the expropriation. Only public awareness of the long-term consequences can limit this form of exploitation.

replace our foundational democratic principles and institutions with a state grounded on a particular version of Christianity, answering to what some adherents call a "biblical worldview" that also happens to serve the interests of its plutocratic funders and allied political leaders.

This is not a "culture war." It is a political war over the future of democracy.

The real issue at the Capitol Ministries fund-raiser is that the proponents of this antidemocratic vision no longer seem to feel the need to disguise their ambitions. They, too, are getting ready to king.

Christian nationalism pretends to work toward the revival of "traditional values" yet its values contradict the long-established principles and norms of our democracy.

Yet the fundamental difference today is that one party is now beholden to a movement that does not appear to have much respect for representative democracy.

Equality is what happens when the people who decide how to cut the cake (senators, for example) can't rig the division to favor themselves.

For now, suffice it to say that the foundations for our modern democratic world originated, not in Europe, but in the northeastern corner of North America.

Death was democratic. It made no choice between the rich and the poor, the beautiful and the ugly, the young and the old.

The choice he was forced to make between faith and complacency is one that faces all Americans, not for the duration of a war but for the duration of our democracy.

so I can vote and then bitch about it later. You can't really not vote and then bitch about what's happening. At least as a voter you try to make your voice and opinions heard.

I have made a film about jazz that tries to look through jazz to see what it tells us about who we are as a people. I think that jazz is a spectacularly accurate model of democracy and a kind of look into our redemptive future possibilities.