True Democracy Quotes

• Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Success, Education, Real

  Roosevelt, Franklin D. (1941). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: F.D. Roosevelt, 1938, Volume 7”, p.538, Best Books on

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• In true democracy every man and woman is taught to think for himself or herself.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Freedom, Men, Thinking

  Mahatma Gandhi (1968). “The Selected Works of Mahatma Gandhi: Satyagraha in South Africa”

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• If voting made any difference they wouldn't let us do it.

  Mark Twain

  Differences, Government, Voting

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• There cannot be true democracy unless all citizens are able to participate fully in the lives of their country.

  Hillary Clinton

  Country, Historical, Democracy

  Hillary Rodham Clinton (1999). “Remarks and commentary by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton--Vital voices, 1997-1999”

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• The true democracy, living and growing and inspiring, puts its faith in the people - faith that the people will not simply elect men who will represent their views ably and faithfully, but will also elect men who will exercise their conscientious judgment - faith that the people will not condemn those whose devotion to principle leads them to unpopular courses, but will reward courage, respect honor, and ultimately recognize right.

  John F. Kennedy

  Inspirational, Courage, Exercise

  Selected Quotations from John F. Kennedy's Book "Profiles in Courage", www.jfklibrary.org. 1957.

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• There cannot be true democracy unless women's voices are heard.

  Hillary Clinton

  Voice, Democracy, Being True

  Hillary Rodham Clinton (1999). “Remarks and commentary by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton--Vital voices, 1997-1999”

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• Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.

  James Bovard

  Humor, Two, Democracies Have

  James Bovard (2016). “Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty”, p.333, St. Martin's Griffin

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• Everybody counts in applying democracy. And there will never be a true democracy until every responsible and law-abiding adult in it, without regard to race, sex, color or creed has his or her own inalienable and unpurchasable voice in government.

  Carrie Chapman Catt

  Sex, Women, Law

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• Being adequately informed is a democratic duty, just as the vote is a democratic right. A misinformed electorate, voting without knowledge, is not a true democracy.

  Jay Griffiths

  Voting, Democracy, Vote

  "Don't give climate change heretics an easy ride" by Jay Griffiths, www.theguardian.com. August 31, 2012.

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• That government is best which governs least.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Freedom, Democracies Have, Government

  Civil Disobedience (1849) See Ralph Waldo Emerson 29; O'Sullivan 1; Shipley 1

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• I believe that it is essential to our leadership in the world and to the development of true democracy in our country to have no discrimination in our country whatsoever. This is most important in the schools of our country.

  Eleanor Roosevelt

  Country, Women, Believe

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• There cannot be true democracy unless women's voices are heard. There cannot be true democracy unless women are given the opportunity to take responsibility for their own lives.

  Hillary Clinton

  Responsibility, Opportunity, Voice

  Hillary Rodham Clinton (1999). “Remarks and commentary by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton--Vital voices, 1997-1999”

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• Democracy is not just freedom to criticize the government or head of state, or to hold parliamentary elections. True democracy obtains only when the people - women, men, young people, children - have the ability to change the system of industrial capitalism that has oppressed them since the earliest days of slavery: a system based on class division, patriarchy, and military might, a hierarchical system that subjugates people merely because they are born poor, or female, or dark-skinned.

  Nawal El Saadawi

  Children, Military, Dark

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• My notion of democracy is that under it the weakest shall have the same opportunities as the strongest... no country in the world today shows any but patronizing regard for the weak... Western democracy, as it functions today, is diluted fascism... true democracy cannot be worked by twenty men sitting at the center. It has to be worked from below, by the people of every village.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Country, Freedom, Opportunity

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• The true slogan of a true democracy is not `Let the Government do it' but rather, 'let's do it ourselves'.... This is the spirit of a people dedicated to helping themselves and one another.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Government, People, Democracy

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• To win the cause we all believe in, the spread of true democracy all over the world, we need to win by example, not just with speeches but by example; not just with military might but by gaining the respect of the world.

  Barbara Boxer

  Respect, Military, Believe

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• In the strict sense of the term, a true democracy has never existed, and never will exist.

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Democracies Have, Democracy, Existence

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• Nor is the people's judgment always true: the most may err as grossly as the few.

  John Dryden

  Freedom, Democracies Have, People

  John Dryden (1870). “The Poetical Works of John Dryden”, p.113

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• No. What would I look like fighting for equality with the white man?  I don't want to go down that low.  I want the true democracy that'll raise me and that white man up raise America up.

  Fannie Lou Hamer

  Fighting, Men, White Man

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• Even if we accept, as the basic tenet of true democracy, that one moron is equal to one genius, is it necessary to go a further step and hold that two morons are better than one genius?

  Leo Szilard

  Two, Democracy, Genius

  "The Voice of the Dolphins: And Other Stories". Book by Leo Szilard, 1961.

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• Inflation is bringing us true democracy. For the first time in history, luxuries and necessities are selling at the same price.

  Robert Orben

  Luxury, Democracy, Firsts

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• The procedure we are pursuing is that of true democracy. Semi-democracy accepts the dictatorship of a majority in establishing its arbitrary, ergo, unnatural, laws. True democracy discovers by patient experiment and unanimous acknowledgement what the laws of nature or universe may be for the physical support and metaphysical satisfaction of the human intellect's function in universe.

  R. Buckminster Fuller

  Law, Support, Democracy

  R. Buckminster Fuller (2008). “Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth”, p.103, Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller

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• A man may act as his conscience dictates so long as he does not infringe upon the rights of others. That is the spirit of true democracy, and all government by the Priesthood should be actuated by that same high motive.

  David O. McKay

  Men, Rights, Long

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• True Democracy makes no enquiry about the color of the skin, or the place of nativity. Wherever it sees a man, it recognizes a being endowed by his Creator with original inalienable rights

  Salmon P. Chase

  Men, Rights, Color

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• For no country is a true democracy whose women have not an equal share in life with men, and until we realize this we shall never achieve a real democracy on this earth.

  Pearl S. Buck

  Country, Real, Men

  Pearl S. Buck (1941). “Of Men and Women”

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