Democracy Quotes - Page 4

• In our so-called democracy we are accustomed to give the majority what they want rather than educate them to understand what is best for them.

  Carter G. Woodson

  Education, Giving, Majority

  122 Copy quote

• Communism destroys democracy. Democracy can also destroy Communism.

  Andre Malraux

  Communism

  11 Copy quote

• If democracy is such a good thing, let's have more of it.

  Dick Gregory

  Good Things, Ifs

  25 Copy quote

• I swear to the Lord, I still can't see, why Democracy means, everybody but me.

  Langston Hughes

  Mean, Racism, Political

  "The Black Man Speaks" l. 1 (1943)

  26 Copy quote

  Show source

• Democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man.

  Ronald Reagan

  Witty, Men, Political

  Remarks on the 40th Anniversary of D-Day, delivered 6 June 1984 in Pointe Du Hoc, Normandy, France

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• The majority is never right. Never, I tell you! That's one of these lies in society that no free and intelligent man can help rebelling against. Who are the people that make up the biggest proportion of the population -- the intelligent ones or the fools?

  Henrik Ibsen

  Freedom, Lying, Intelligent

  Henrik Ibsen, James McFarlane (1999). “An Enemy of the People ; The Wild Duck ; Rosmersholm”, p.76, Oxford University Press, USA

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Under capitalism, we can't have democracy by definition. Capitalism is a system in which the central institutions of society are in principle under autocratic control.

  Noam Chomsky

  Principles, Definitions, Institutions

  Noam Chomsky (2004). “Language and Politics”, p.138, AK Press

  23 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Baron de Montesquieu

  People, Nerd, Body

  Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (2015). “The Spirit of Laws”, p.22, Library of Alexandria

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• I am a democrat only on principle, not by instinct, nobody is that. Doubtless some people say they are, but this world is grievously given to lying.

  Mark Twain

  Lying, People, Society

  1898 Notebook, ch.31, Feb ^ Mar.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep him in prison because he is unpopular. This is really the test of civilization.

  Winston Churchill

  Civilization, Political, Abhorrent

  Winston Churchill (1952). “The Second World War”

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• I always assume that democracy is the only good form of government, quite frankly, and democracy is always to be preferred

  Jeane Kirkpatrick

  Government, Assuming, Form

  8 Copy quote

• My argument has always been that this is not an anti-Bush film, it's a pro-democracy film. And if George W.Bush comes out on the wrong side of democracy, that's his problem.

  John Sayles

  Sides, Argument, Problem

  "Liberal America's last stand" by John Sayles, www.theguardian.com. July 21, 2005.

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• These, then, will be some of the features of democracy... it will be, in all likelihood, an agreeable, lawless, parti-colored commonwealth, dealing with all alike on a footing of equality, whether they be really equal or not.

  Plato

  Plato, Equal, Commonwealth

  9 Copy quote

• Democracy represents the disbelief in all great men and in all elite societies: everybody is everybody's equal.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Men, Equal, Disbelief

  7 Copy quote

• Democracy is necessary to peace and to undermining the forces of terrorism.

  Benazir Bhutto

  Democracies Have, Terrorism, Force

  Interview With Zahid Hussain, newslinemagazine.com. July 2002.

  73 Copy quote

  Show source

• Deliberation and debate is the way you stir the soul of our democracy.

  Jesse Jackson

  Political, Soul, Politics

  "The Question Is Moot!". Interview With Steve Stearns, www.sonicsrising.com. October 12, 2007.

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• Democracy forever teases us with the contrast between its ideals and its realities, between its heroic possibilities and its sorry achievements.

  Agnes Repplier

  Sorry, Reality, Achievement

  Agnes Repplier (2009). “American Austen: The Forgotten Writing of Agnes Repplier”, Intercollegiate Studies Institute

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• A perfect democracy is therefore the most shameless thing in the world.

  Edmund Burke

  Perfect, World, Shameless

  'Reflections on the Revolution in France' (1790) p. 139

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• I am an adherent of the ideal of democracy, although I well know the weaknesses of the democratic form of government. Social equality and economic protection of the individual appeared to me always as the important communal aims of the state. Although I am a typical loner in daily life, my consciousness of belonging to the invisible community of those who strive for truth, beauty, and justice has preserved me from feeling isolated.

  Albert Einstein

  Government, Justice, Community

  "My credo" by Albert Einstein, 1932.

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.

  Hubert H. Humphrey

  Motivational, Life And Love, Freedom

  Speech to National Student Association at Madison, 23 Aug. 1965, in New York Times 24 Aug. 1965, p. 12

  53 Copy quote

  Show source

• I confess I enjoy democracy immensely. It is incomparably idiotic, and hence incomparably amusing.

  H. L. Mencken

  Amusing, Enjoy, Idiotic

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.168, Vintage

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• If Voting Changed Anything They'd Abolish It

  Ken Livingstone

  Democracies Have, Political, Voting

  Ken Livingstone (2011). “You Can't Say That: Memoirs”, p.49, Faber & Faber

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Chinks in America's egalitarian armor are not hard to find. Democracy is the fig leaf of elitism.

  Florence King

  Women, Egalitarianism, America

  Florence King (1990). “Reflections In A Jaundiced Eye”, p.97, Macmillan

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• You must drop all your democracy. You must not believe in ''the people.'' One class is no better than another. It must be a case of Wisdom, or Truth. Let the working classes be working classes. That is the truth. There must be an aristocracy of people who have wisdom, and there must be a Ruler: a Kaiser: no Presidents and democracies.

  D. H. Lawrence

  Believe, Class, People

  7 Copy quote

• Democracy is the common pursuit of mankind, and all countries must earnestly protect the democratic rights of the people.

  Hu Jintao

  Country, Rights, People

  8 Copy quote