Democracy Quotes - Page 29

• We should insist that governments receiving American aid live up to standards of accountability and transparency, and we should support countries that embrace market reforms, democracy, and the rule of law.

  Lee H. Hamilton

  Country, Law, Government

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• Our representative democracy is not working because the Congress that is supposed to represent the voters does not respond to their needs. I believe the chief reason for this is that it is ruled by a small group of old men.

  Shirley Chisholm

  Believe, Men, Needs

  Shirley Chisholm (2010). “Unbought and Unbossed: Expanded 40th Anniversary Edition”, p.119, Take Root Media

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• Democracy -- rule by the people -- sounds like a fine thing; we should try it sometime in America.

  Edward Abbey

  America, People, Trying

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.17, RosettaBooks

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• There are only two kinds of books -- good books and the others. The good are winnowed from the bad through the democracy of time.

  Edward Abbey

  Book, Two, Kind

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.31, RosettaBooks

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• Muhammad brought down from heaven and put into the Koran not religious doctrines only, but political maxims, criminal and civil laws, and scientific theories. The Gospels  on the other hand, deal only with the general relations between man and God and between man and man. Beyond that, they teach nothing and do not oblige people to believe anything. That alone, among a thousand reasons, is enough to show that Islam will not be able to hold its power long in ages of enlightenment and democracy, while Christianity is destined to reign in such ages, as in all others.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Religious, Believe, Men

  "Democracy in America". Book by Alexis de Tocqueville, Volume II. Book One, Chapter V, 1840.

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• It is possible for a dictator to govern in a liberal way. And it is also possible for a democracy to govern with a total lack of liberalism. Personally I prefer a liberal dictator to democratic government lacking liberalism.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Government, Way, Dictator

  "El Mercurio" Newspaper, 1981.

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• That instability is inherent in the nature of popular governments, I think very disputable … A representative democracy, where the right of election is well secured and regulated & the exercise of the legislature, executive, and judiciary authorities, is vested in select persons, chosen really and not nominally by the people, will in my opinion be most likely to be happy, regular and durable.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Exercise, Thinking, Government

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• Technically, the city of Ankh-Morpork is a Tyranny, which is not always the same thing as a monarchy, and in fact even the post of Tyrant has been somewhat redefined by the incumbent, Lord Vetinari, as the only form of democracy that works. Everyone is entitled to vote, unless disqualified by reason of age or not being Lord Vetinari.

  Terry Pratchett

  Cities, Tyrants, Age

  Stephen Briggs, Terry Pratchett (2015). “Unseen Academicals”, p.13, Oberon Books

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• It would perhaps be as well if things were to remain quiet for a few years yet, so that all this 1848 democracy has time to rot away.

  Karl Marx

  Democracies Have, Years, Quiet

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• I'm very disappointed by the mature-democracy countries. I was ousted by a coup d'etat.

  Thaksin Shinawatra

  Country, Mature, Coups

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• In a democracy, someone who fails to get elected to office can always console himself with the thought that there was something not quite fair about it.

  Thucydides

  Office, Failing, Fairs

  "History of the Peloponnesian War". Book by Thucydides, Book VIII, 8.89, 431–404 BC.

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• Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty. Democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man.Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States.

  Ronald Reagan

  Men, Entrepreneur, Growth

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• The world also remains a hopeful place. Calls for democracy and human rights are being reborn everywhere, and these calls are an expression of support for the values enshrined in the United Nations Charter. They encourage our hopes for a more stable, more peaceful, more prosperous world.

  George H. W. Bush

  Money, Nwo, People

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• There is no state with a democracy except Libya on the whole planet.

  Muammar al-Gaddafi

  Leader, Dictator, States

  "Gaddafi gives lesson on democracy". news.bbc.co.uk. March 24, 2006.

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• Democracy is now currently defined in Europe as a 'country run by Jews,'

  Ezra Pound

  Running, Country, Europe

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• Never before has a populist democracy attained international supremacy. But the pursuit of power is not a goal that commands popular passion, except in conditions of a sudden threat or challenge to the public's sense of domestic well-being. The economic self-denial (that is, defense spending) and the human sacrifice (casualties, even among professional soldiers) required in the effort are uncongenial to democratic instincts. Democracy is inimical to imperial mobilization.

  Zbigniew Brzezinski

  Passion, Sacrifice, Self

  "The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy And Its Geostrategic Imperatives". Book by Zbigniew Brzezinski, 1997.

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• Democracy is direct self-government over all the people, for all the people, by all the people.

  Theodore Parker

  Self, Government, People

  Sermon at Music Hall, Boston, Mass., 4 July 1858 See Lincoln 42; Theodore Parker 1; Daniel Webster 5

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• Puritanism, believing itself quick with the seed of religious liberty, laid, without knowing it, the egg of democracy.

  James Russell Lowell

  Religious, Believe, Eggs

  James Russell Lowell (1870). “Among My Books: Six Essays”, p.227

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• I don't know whether it's age or maturity, but I certainly find myself committed more and more to the looser forms of Western democracy at any price.

  John le Carre

  Maturity, Age, Literature

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• I have seen, and I know firsthand, indeed from my own pen, how the organized Right has sabotaged not only journalism but also democracy and truth.

  David Brock

  Journalism, Organized, My Own

  David Brock (2004). “The Republican Noise Machine: Right-Wing Media and How It Corrupts Democracy”, p.20, Crown

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• The truest test of a democracy is in the ability of anyone to act as he likes, so long as he does not injure the life or property of anyone else.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Long, Doe, Tests

  Mahatma Gandhi (1967). “The Mind of Mahatma Gandhi”, p.347, Rajpal & Sons

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• If we can implant in our people the Christian virtues which we sum up in the word character, and, at the same time, give them a knowledge of the line which should be drawn between voluntary action and governmental compulsion in a democracy, and of what can be accomplished within the stern laws of economics, we will enable them to retain their freedom, and at the same time, make them worthy to be free.

  Winthrop W. Aldrich

  Christian, Freedom, Character

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• Democracy is still upon its trial. The civic genius of our people is its only bulwark.

  William James

  People, Genius, Trials

  William James (2012). “Memories and Studies”, p.33, The Floating Press

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• We need to get beyond the politics of the moment, the deficit of the hour, the military count of the day, the numbers that rarely shape events. Our long-term interests must be in people and in the values of democracy and individual liberty.

  Bill Bradley

  Military, Numbers, Long

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• Democracy, as I understand it, requires me to sacrifice myself for the masses, not to them. Who knows not that if you would save the people, you must often oppose them?

  John C. Calhoun

  Sacrifice, People, Understanding

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