Quotes About Democracy

The ancients saw in the historical or mythical hero, in Alexander or in Achilles, the standard of human life. The great man was paradigmatic, his existence exemplary. The patron saint of the democrat, on the other hand, is the vulgar man. The democratic model must be strictly lacking in every admirable quality.

The effect of democratic rhetoric on taste is called disgust.

Das Individuum, das eine authentische Berufung hat, ist reaktionär, welcher Art die Überzeugungen auch seien, die es hegt. Demokrat ist, wer erwartet, daß die Außenwelt ihm Ziele setzt.

Wird einem Demokraten ein Finger brandig, fällt ihm nur eines ein: Ein Gesetz zu fordern, das das Abschneiden aller Hände anordnet.

Natural inequalities would make the democrat's life bitter, if slander did not exist.

The democratic historian teaches that the democrat kills only because his victims force him to do so.

Democracy celebrates the cult of humanity on a pyramid of skulls.

Democratic thinking tends to deduce the consequences of action with the same straightforward confidence as the implications of a principle. What the reactionary, on the other hand, knows how to see is the paradoxical nature of actions, of people, of the world.

Der Demokrat erstarrt, wenn er von der ungewöhnlichen Koalition Kenntnis erhält, die ihn bedroht, wenn er entdeckt, daß die Klassik des Sophokles sich mit der Romantik Kierkegaards verbündet hat, um ihn zu verurteilen. Wenn er bei diesem Unterfangen den bischöflichen Pomp Bossuets mit dem dionysischen Atheismus Nietzsches paktieren sieht.

Los políticos, en la democracia, son los condensadores de la imbecilidad.

Today's conservatives are nothing more than liberals who have been ill-treated by democracy

Among the vices of democracy one must count the impossibility of someone occupying an important position there without it being his ambition.

Revolutions are frightening, but election campaigns are disgusting.

Der Demokrat erstarrt, wenn er von ungewöhnlichen Koalition Kenntnis erhält, die ihn bedroht, wenn er entdeckt, daß die Klassik des Sophokles sich mit Romantik Kierkgaards verbündet hat, um ihn zu verurteilen. Wenn er bei diesen Unterfangen den bischöflichen Pomp Bosseut mit den dionysischen Atheismus Nietzsches paktieren sieht.

The disaster of democracy only becomes apparent when its promises have been fully fulfilled.

When they die, aristocracies explode; democracies deflate.

Democratic massacres belong to the logic of the system. Ancient massacres to the illogicality of man.

Die Aristokraten sind die normalen; die Demokraten die Fehlgeburten der Geschichte.

I want to issue a call to everyone in the world who believes in the values of tolerance, freedom, democracy, humanism, to all those who are persecuted by tyranny, by dictatorships.

The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a democracy should be the weapon of openness.

Free speech is one of the core values in a democracy and it should be championed with a vengeance.

One reason why false and offensive speech is permitted in most liberal democracies is precisely because the best answer to bad speech is good speech, rather than censorship.

We have distant democracy, well suited to a distant penocracy, well suited to serve a large-scale society using taximeters to control the price of all acts.

Great teachers should be paid like doctors or corporate attorneys. I worry about what will happen to our economy and our democracy if we don't start to take teachers' jobs seriously.