Democracy Quotes - Page 20

• I believe in trade unionism, and I believe in democracy, in democratic trade unionism.

  Richard Attenborough

  Believe, Democratic, Trade

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The spread of democracy is a wonderful thing-it is a necessary foundation for peace-and it can happen. But it cannot be advanced by force, and still less by the creation of a new empire, an idea that is as unworkable as it morally mistaken. Empire, the embodiment of force, violates equity on a global scale. No lover of freedom can give it support. It is especially contrary to the founding principles of the United States.

  Jonathan Schell

  Ideas, Giving, Support

  7 Copy quote

• The capitalist system of production is an economic democracy in which every penny gives a right to vote. The consumers are the sovereign people. The capitalists, the entrepreneurs, and the farmers are the people's mandatories. If they do not obey, if they fail to produce, at the lowest possible cost, what

  Ludwig von Mises

  People, Giving, Entrepreneur

  Ludwig Von Mises (1944). “Bureaucracy”

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• I see encouraging signs of democracy developing in other places in the Middle East. In Tunisia, in Iraq, and now in Egypt. Tunisia is the one Muslim country that does something for girls and education. As far as I know, this is the only Muslim country where this is true. There is compulsory education for girls from the age of 5.

  Bernard Lewis

  Girl, Country, Age

  5 Copy quote

• Every one of the aristocratic conspirators and would-be murderers claims to be an arch-patriot; every one of them insists that the war is being waged to make the world safe for democracy. What humbug! What rot! What false pretense! These... tyrants, these red-handed robbers and murderers, the "patriots," while the men who have the courage to stand face to face with them, speak the truth, and fight for their exploited victims - they are [called] the disloyalists and traitors. If this be true, I want to take my place side by side with the traitors in this fight.

  Eugene V. Debs

  War, Fighting, Men

  Eugene V. Debs' speech he gave across the street from a jail, where he had just visited three socialists who were in prison for opposing the draft, June 1918.

  55 Copy quote

  Show source

• What kind of victory is it when someone is left defeated? What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy. What is a war criminal? Was not war itself a crime against God and humanity, and, therefore, were not all those who sanctioned, engineered and conducted wars, war criminals? The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. Non-cooperation with evil is a sacred duty.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Strong, War, Differences

  Non-Violence in Peace and War (1942) vol. 1, ch. 142

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• In democratic centuries, on the contrary, when the duties of each individual toward the species are much clearer, devotion toward one man becomes rarer: the bond of human affections is extended and loosened.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Men, Affection, Devotion

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2012). “Democracy in America”, p.483, University of Chicago Press

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It may well happen that the public voice, pronounced by the representatives of the people, will be more constant to the public good than if pronounced by the people themselves.

  James Madison

  Voice, People, May

  "Federalist No. 10. The Same Subject Continued: The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection" by James Madison, www.congress.gov. November 23, 1787.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• If it be true that democracy is based upon the assumption that every man shall serve his fellow man, the organization of democracy should be gradually adapted to that assumption.

  Herbert Croly

  Men, Organization, Fellow Man

  Herbert Croly (2005). “The Promise of American Life”, p.418, Cosimo, Inc.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Good citizenship and defending democracy means living up to the ideals and values that make this country great.

  Ronald Reagan

  Country, Character, Mean

  73 Copy quote

• This democracy of ours, which sometimes we've treated so lightly, is more than ever a comfortable cloak, so let us not tear it asunder, for no man knows, once it is destroyed, where or when he will find its protective warmth again.

  Ronald Reagan

  Men, Tears, Sometimes

  5 Copy quote

• I am not concerned with dodging the odium of the word. The proposed definition of democracy is socialistic . . . (democracy) should be characterized not so much socialistic, as unscrupulously and loyally nationalistic.

  Herbert Croly

  Definitions, Should, Concerned

  4 Copy quote

• I talk democracy to these men and women. I tell them that they have the vote, and that theirs is the kingdom and the power and the glory. I say to them You are supreme: exercise your power. They say, That's right: tell us what to do; and I tell them. I say Exercise our vote intelligently by voting for me. And they do. That's democracy; and a splendid thing it is too for putting the right men in the right place.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Exercise, Power, Men

  George Bernard Shaw (2015). “George Bernard Shaw: The Collected Plays (Illustrated): 60 plays including Caesar and Cleopatra, Pygmalion, Saint Joan, The Apple Cart, Cymbeline, Androcles And The Lion, The Man Of Destiny, The Inca Of Perusalem and Macbeth Skit”, p.3389, e-artnow

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• If democracy were to be given any meaning, if it were to go beyond the limits of capitalism and nationalism, this would not come, if history were any guide, from the top. It would come through citizen's movements, educating, organizing, agitating, striking, boycotting, demonstrating, threatening those in power with disruption of the stability they needed.

  Howard Zinn

  Citizens, Movement, Limits

  Howard Zinn (2015). “A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present”, p.674, Routledge

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• The American People are witnessing the greatest lie that is cleverly orchestrated by President Obama and his whole administration. President Obama feeds people poison, giving them the idea that they are entitled to take from the wealthier who have lived and worked in a democracy that understands that capitalism is the only truth that keeps a nation healthy ... [Obama uses] a socialistic, Marxist teaching, and with it, he rapes this nation.

  Jon Voight

  Lying, Teaching, Ideas

  "Jon Voight: Obama ‘Rapes This Nation’", www.huffingtonpost.com. June 13, 2010.

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• The idea was that those who direct the overall conspiracy could use the differences in those two so-called ideologies [Marxism/fascism/socialism v. democracy/capitalism] to enable them [the Illuminati] to divide larger and larger portions of the human race into opposing camps so that they could be armed and then brainwashed into fighting and destroying each other.

  Myron Coureval Fagan

  Fighting, Race, Order

  19 Copy quote

• I am against revolution and am proud of it. Democracy cannot be created through revolutions. The most important dichotomy that I make for a society is between those who support democracy and human rights, and those who oppose it. In a totalitarian state, the state views any act of an individual to be political in nature. For example, the clothing that a person wears in a modern state is a private affair whereas in the Islamic Republic all women are forced to wear the hijab (Islamic attire). When women push their headscarf back an inch or two, this is interpreted to be a political act.

  Akbar Ganji

  Islamic, Rights, Views

  13 Copy quote

• What is true, just, and beautiful is not determined by popular vote. The masses everywhere are ignorant, short-sighted, motivated by envy, and easy to fool. Democratic politicians must appeal to these masses in order to be elected. Whoever is the best demagogue will win. Almost by necessity, then, democracy will lead to the perversion of truth, justice and beauty.

  Hans-Hermann Hoppe

  Beauty, Beautiful, Truth

  116 Copy quote

• My political ideal is democracy. Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized.

  Albert Einstein

  Self Esteem, Men, Political

  Albert Einstein (2011). “The World As I See It”, p.14, Open Road Media

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• If democracy is justified in governing the state,then it must also be justified in governing economic enterprises, and to say that it is not justified in governing economic enterprises is to imply that it is not justified in governing the state.

  Robert A. Dahl

  Justified, Economic, States

  17 Copy quote

• Information is the currency of democracy. It's denial must always be suspect.

  Ralph Nader

  Denial, Information, Currency

  10 Copy quote

• This is the criminal left that belongs not in a dormitory, but in a penitentiary. The criminal left is not a problem to be solved by the Department of Philosophy or the Department of English - it is a problem for the Department of Justice. Black or white, the criminal left is interested in power. It is not interested in promoting the renewal and reforms that make democracy work; it is interested in promoting those collisions and conflict that tear democracy apart.

  Spiro T. Agnew

  Philosophy, Power, White

  Speech at a Florida Republican dinner, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, April 28, 1970.

  114 Copy quote

  Show source

• A lot of young poets today, from what I've heard and experienced, can't get their heads past George W. Bush, and I've heard so many poems about this democracy and this era of politics that I'm kind of bored by it

  Amber Tamblyn

  Past, Bored, Politics

  7 Copy quote

• If the test of patriotism comes only by reflexively falling into lockstep behind the leader whenever the flag is waved, then what we have is a formula for dictatorship, not democracy.

  Michael Pare

  Fall, Leader, Political

  6 Copy quote

• I say us - obviously I don't vote as I believe democracy is a pointless spectacle where we choose between two indistinguishable political parties, neither of whom represent the people but the interest of powerful business elites that run the world.

  Russell Brand

  Running, Powerful, Party

  "Russell Brand: Democracy is pointless" by Caitlin Mcdevitt, www.politico.com. June 04, 2012.

  15 Copy quote

  Show source