Democracies Have Quotes - Page 7

• Democracy has now become corrupted by the nature of the funders.

  George Hamilton

  Democracy

  Source: www.foxnews.com

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• Democracy has become, unless I mistake, a kind of test or shibboleth, by which we try men and measures; and this is the same as to say that it is merely a word which is powerful with us, and not the wide and true notion of what the word means. But we must define the true import of words, and not be slaves to syllables; for democracy in form is not necessarily people-power in fact, but power perhaps of a few, who cajole the many and so lead and use the people for their own ends.

  James Vila Blake

  Powerful, Mistake, Mean

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• Democracy has at least one merit, namely that a Member of Parliament cannot be stupider than his constituents, for the more stupid he is, the more stupid they were to elect him.

  Bertrand Russell

  Stupid, Democracy, Merit

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Autobiography”, p.66, Routledge

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• Majorities can be wrong, majorities can overrule rights of minorities. If majorities ruled, we could still have slavery. 80% of the population once enslaved 20% of the population. While run by majority rule that is ok. That is very flawed notion of what democracy is. Democracy has to take into account several things - proportionate requirements of people, not just needs of the majority, but also needs of the minority. Majority, especially in societies where the media manipulates public opinion, can be totally wrong and evil. People have to act according to conscience and not by majority vote.

  Howard Zinn

  Running, Rights, Evil People

  "Rebels Against Tyranny". Interview with Ziga Vodovnik, www.counterpunch.org. May 12, 2008.

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• All deductions having been made, democracy has done less harm, and more good, than any other form of government. It gave to human existence a zest and camaraderie that outweighed its pitfalls and defects. It gave to thought and science and enterprise the freedom essential to their operation and growth. It broke down the walls of privilege and class, and in each generation it raised up ability from every rank and place.

  Will Durant

  Wall, Government, Zest

  Will Durant, Ariel Durant (2012). “The Lessons of History”, p.62, Simon and Schuster

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• It took six weeks of debate in the Senate to get the Arms Embargo Law repealed--and we face other delays during the present session because most of the Members of the Congress are thinking in terms of next Autumn's election. However, that is one of the prices that we who live in democracies have to pay. It is, however, worth paying, if all of us can avoid the type of government under which the unfortunate population of Germany and Russia must exist.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Autumn, Thinking, Russia

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• Democracy, by its very nature, can't be imposed on people. Democracy has to be the people deciding for themselves.

  George Soros

  People, Democracy

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• We in the United States are very often - since we are a democracy and we have national interests, we've often made the mistake that a democracy has to adopt America's interests, and that is a contradiction because a democracy basically is people deciding what their interests are.

  George Soros

  Mistake, America, People

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• Advocating democracy has, by other people, often been taken as a form of imperialism, and not without some justification. So the important thing in a democracy is that it doesn't necessarily have to agree with what America's interests are, and it doesn't necessarily have to be serving American interests.

  George Soros

  Taken, America, People

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• What other developed democracy has such a ridiculous and squalid history of intolerance? From the imprisonment and roasting of heretics, witches and poachers, to the censorship of literature, art and television: from St Alban through Wilde, Joyce and Lawrence I think we can point with pride to as grim a catalogue of intemperate, bigoted repression as any nation on earth.

  Stephen Fry

  Art, Pride, Thinking

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• The perception of the West as mostly a "knight of democracy" has been replaced with the disappointed belief that pragmatism, often cynical and selfish, lies at the core of Western policies. For many Russians it was a grave disillusion, a crushing of ideals.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Crush, Selfish, Lying

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• A well-functioning democracy has a culture of free speech, not simply legal protection of free speech. It encourages independence of mind. It imparts a willingness to challenge prevailing opinion through both words and deeds. Equally important, it encourages a certain set of attitudes in listeners, one that gives a respectful hearing to those who do not embrace the conventional wisdom. In a culture of free speech, the attitude of listeners is no less important than that of speakers.

  Cass Sunstein

  Attitude, Giving, Challenges

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• There's no doubt that in the last two to three decades, American democracy has been hacked. It was based on the regular harvesting of the wisdom of crowds, but now big sources of special interest money are able to prevent the passage of almost any meaningful reform that's aimed at the public interest.

  Al Gore

  Meaningful, Two, Doubt

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• We need some rules changes. This is an outrage that this, the oldest democracy has now, you know, ranked - when I say ranked 59th, it means that in the percentage of women, in our national parliament, our National Congress, is now ranks 59th from the top. That means 58 countries have more women than we do in percentage wise.

  Eleanor Smeal

  Wise, Country, Mean

  Interview with Joanne Bamberger, www.blogher.com. December 22, 2008.

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• In nation after nation, democracy has taken the place of autocracy.

  John Charles Polanyi

  Taken, Democracy, Autocracy

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

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Democracy, Existence, Term

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• Democracy has to be born anew every generation, and education is its midwife.

  John Dewey

  Democracy, Generations, Born

  John Dewey (1980). “The Middle Works, 1899-1924”, p.139, SIU Press

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• In 1956, I shall not go to the polls. I have not registered. I believe that democracy has so far disappeared in the United States that no 'two evils' exist. There is but one evil party with two names, and it will be elected despite all I can do or say.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Party, Believe, Names

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• No democracy has ever long survived the failure of its adherents to be ready to die for it. My own conviction is this, the people must either go on or go under.

  David Lloyd George

  Long, People, Democracy

  David Lloyd George “War Memoirs of David Lloyd George: 1917-1918”

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• On the whole, with scandalous exceptions, Democracy has given the ordinary worker more dignity than he ever had.

  Sinclair Lewis

  Democracy, Ordinary, Dignity

  Sinclair Lewis (2014). “It Can't Happen Here”, p.30, Penguin

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• I don't like the current political system in the USA and some other countries. Increasingly democracy has been hijacked by corporate interests.

  Neil Young

  Country, Usa, Political

  "Neil Young permits Trump to Keep on Rockin'", www.theguardian.com. May 25, 2016.

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• Fascism and communism have not entirely disappeared but have been sidelined certainly, and liberal democracy has come to be accepted, in theory at least, around the world, if not always in practice.

  Samuel P. Huntington

  Practice, Democracy, World

  Interview With Amina Chaudary, www.theislamicmonthly.com. June 17, 2012.

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• Two visions of the world remain locked in dispute. The first believes all men are created equal by a loving God who has blessed us with freedom. The second vision believes that religion is opium for the masses. It believes that eternal principles like truth, liberty, and democracy have no meaning beyond the whim of the state. And [Vladimir] Lenin spoke for them.

  Ronald Reagan

  Believe, Blessed, Men

  Source: www.visionandvalues.org

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• Democracy has both expanded and declined over the years.

  Noam Chomsky

  Years, Democracy

  Source: chomsky.info

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• Democracy has not failed; the intelligence of the race has failed before the problems the race has raised

  Robert M. Hutchins

  Race, Intelligence, Democracy

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