Quotes About Democracy

My problem with democracy is that it doesn't exist. I'm not opposed to it. And I'm not opposed to the tooth fairy either.

Democracy assumes that individuals must be allowed to be the best judge of their own interests, even if they often seem to be misguided. Governments are not there to tell us what to believe or think, they are there to represent our beliefs, and to translate them into laws or regulations.

And on the other side of the ledger, unions like the Teamsters often employed their own muscle, their own reigns of terror, including bombings, arsons, beatings, and murders. The warfare and violence were not just between labor and management. It was often between rival unions vying for the same membership. Sadly, it was often violence directed at rank-and-file union members who urged democratic reform of their unions. The

The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later in a dictatorship you don't have to waste your time voting.

How can one conceive of a one-party system in a country that has over two hundred varieties of cheese?

The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.

The love of democracy is that of equality.

When the body of the people is possessed of the supreme power, it is called a democracy.

I think we can survive—and resist both US authoritarianism and corporatism while creating a democratic revolution—only if the majority of Americans either become the kind of activist I describe in this book—or support those who do.

Our democracy poses problems and these problems must and shall be solved by courageous leadership.

Because of our Congressional committee system, our government is closer to a gerontocracy than a democracy.

ADULTERY. Democracy applied to love.

Our democracy needs a robust press to hold our leaders accountable and cover the important issues facing our communities. The First Amendment belongs to all of us.

To believe in liberal democracy is to believe that there is more good will in society than ill will; more ground for agreement than disagreement; more things that the majority of people want to preserve and cherish than they want to destroy; more that they love than that they hate; more to unite men and classes than to divide them; and that to find these principles of unity and agreement, through deliberation and compromise, is the duty of civilized human beings.

The liberal spirit is the breath of liberal democracy. And the liberal spirit is something instantly recognizable but very difficult to define. It has about it a refreshing common sense... It is even-tempered, and of even tempo... Reform, and constant reform, is a necessity of democracy. But reform in a hurry... is jerry-built, and it blows down in the first storm.

DEMOCRACY. The theory that two thieves will steal less than one, and three less than two, and four less than three, and so on ad infinitum; the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.

The principle is that the qualities that get a man into power are not those that lead him, once established, to use power wisely. There is a simple democratic theory that the best man gets the office. In American thinking this is badly mixed up with the idea that some men "deserve" office, as if the right to control other men, to blast or benefit the future, were something that should be paid over as a reward for achievement in other fields or for virtue.

Future of America. — Perhaps America will one day go fascist democratically, by popular vote.

Half of the American people never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half.

Apparently, a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates.

Fifty percent of people won't vote, and fifty percent don't read newspapers. I hope it's the same fifty percent.

Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half.

With the end of empire, we are coming to an end of the epoch of rights. We have entered the epoch of responsibilities, which requires new, socially-minded human beings and new, more participatory and place-based concepts of citizenship and democracy.

Dennis the Peasant: Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony. Arthur: Be quiet! Dennis: You can't expect to wield supreme power just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!