Quotes About Democracy

People often say that, in a democracy, decisions are made by a majority of the people. Of course, that is not true. Decisions are made by a majority of those who make themselves heard and who vote — a very different thing.

BALLOT BOX. The altar of democracy.

Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote.

The right to vote is the fundamental citizenship right that protects all other rights.

Many forms of government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time...

And that conviction will, I dare say, be backed up by the greatest torrent of money ever poured out to influence an American election — poured out by the men who fear nothing so much as change and who want everything to stay as it is — only more so. This idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal — that you can gather votes like box-tops — is, I think, the ultimate indignity to the democratic process.

Make no mistake, here in our time, it's more important than ever that we show up to vote, not just this year, but every year and in every election. Every voice must be heard and every vote must be counted.

Not voting is not a protest — it is a surrender.

Your vote is your voice.

The right to vote is the crown jewel of American liberties, and we will not see its luster diminished.

If Voting Changed Anything, They'd Abolish It

If you don't vote, you lose the right to complain.

Vote like you understand that someone died for your right to do so.

You can either vote by voting or vote by not voting. If you don't vote, someone else's vote counts more.

Democracy is a form of religion, it is the worship of jackals by jack asses.

The saddest life is that of a political aspirant under democracy. His failure is ignominious and his success is disgraceful.

As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have researched the records for years, and employed agents to help me—has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.

where the ballot-box, more precious than any work in ivory or marble, from the cunning hand of art, has been plundered.

The reason is that the people know that the Democratic Party is the people's party, and the Republican Party is the party of special interest, and it always has been and always will be.

At the moment of a revolution there is no question of setting up a democracy like that in America. If they accuse me of dictatorship, I accept. I am creating a nation. Liberty must be suppressed until the end of the war in Algeriauntil the nation becomes homogeneous.

I would go one step further and say that the willingness to challenge professional economists - and other experts - should be the foundation of democracy. When you think about it, if all we have to do is to listen to the experts, what is the point of having a democracy at all? Unless we want our societies to be run by a body of self-elected experts, we all have to learn economics and challenge professional economists

Unlike what neo-liberals say, market and democracy clash at a fundamental level. Democracy runs on the principle of 'one man (one person), one vote'. The market runs on the principle 'one dollar, one vote'.