Quotes About Democracy

Where the people possess no authority, their rights obtain no respect.

Democracy is a form of government that substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.

So it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world

[On World War II:] We could not indulge in a Seven Years War. A king can perhaps do that, but you cannot have such a protracted struggle in a democracy in the face of mounting casualties.

In fundamental theory socialism and democracy are almost if not quite one and the same. They both rest at bottom on the absolute right of the community to determine its own destiny and that of its members. Limits to the wisdom and convenience to the public control there may be: limits of principle there are, upon strict analysis, none." Note well: the community's right is "absolute.

Soothing assumptions about the good faith and shared interests of antagonists are natural to democracy, as is the desire to spend money on things other than defense. Getting a democracy to do what does not come naturally requires leadership.

The accords were fig leaves of democratic procedure to hide the nakedness of Stalinist dictatorship.

In a true democracy, the vote of majority is absolute and has the power to override the interests of minority. In a republic, the individual rights of a citizen are absolute, and the vote of majority cannot infringe upon them.

In a country ruled by a civil majority even the smallest minority enjoys greater protection than a majority living in a country where power is hoarded by select few," Cornelius said.

De las tres formas de Estado, la democracia es, en el sentido propio de la palabra, necesariamente un despotismo, porque crea un poder ejecutivo en el que todos deciden sobre alguien y, en su caso, contra alguien (es decir, contra quien no esté de acuerdo con los demás), con lo que deciden todos, que no son realmente todos. Esto es una contradicción de la voluntad general consigo misma y con la libertad.

la misma Roma no podía triunfar ninguna democracia sana con un proletariado que se corrompía diariamente en el ocio y con la percepción de subsidios.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the world's democracies numbered fewer than a dozen. Since this imperfect United States of America became the recognized leader of the world, 80 percent of the countries on Planet Earth are either democracies or proto-democracies.

An unpleasant nest of nasty, materialistic and aggressive people, careless of the rights of others, imperfectly democratic at home though quick to see the minor slaveries of others, and greedy without end.

Señor Norman Muller, debo informarle, en nombre del presidente de los Estados Unidos, de que le han escogido para representar al electorado norteamericano el martes 4 de noviembre de 2008.

It is one thing to be democratic, quite another to be inconvenienced.

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.

Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.

We have to defend democracy, but remember that not everything is politics. Without science, industry, and technology, no progress is possible, and without music and art, there's no soul.

Nations should be governed by a council of learned men who must answer to the people for their actions.

The upper middle class and the economic right, who had favored the coup, were euphoric. At first they were a little shocked when they saw the consequences of their action; they had never lived in a dictatorship and did not know what it was like. They thought the loss of democratic freedoms would be temporary and that it was possible to go without individual or collective rights for a while so long as the regime respected the tenets of free enterprise.

Public opinion wouldn't stand for it," Gómez replied. "This is a democracy. It's not a dictatorship and it never will be." "We always think things like that only happen elsewhere," said Miguel, "until they happen to us too.

Jamie aveva orrore di qualsiasi forma di estremismo e sosteneva che i guerriglieri si giustificano solo durante la tirannia, quando non c'è altra scelta che battersi con le armi, ma che sono un'aberrazione in un paese dove i cambiamenti si possono ottenere con votazioni popolari.

As a rightist senator pontificated, "When democracy gets democratic, it doesn't work at all.

On the day of the election everything went according to plan, in perfect order. The armed forces were there to uphold the democratic process, and all was peaceful on a spring day more sprightly and sunny than usual.