Democracy Quotes - Page 7

• Democracy is never a thing done. Democracy is always something that a nation must be doing.

  Archibald MacLeish

  Done, Nations, American Democracy

  Archibald MacLeish (1941). “The American cause”

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• There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.

  John Adams

  Inspirational, Trust, Freedom

  'Notes for an Oration at Braintree' (Spring 1772)

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• Democracy is grounded upon so childish a complex of fallacies that they must be protected by a rigid system of taboos, else even halfwits would argue it to pieces. Its first concern must be to penalize the free play of ideas.

  H. L. Mencken

  Play, Ideas, Pieces

  In Defense of Women, rev. ed., introduction (1922)

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• I believe in Democracy because it releases the energies of every human being.

  Woodrow Wilson

  Military, Believe, Energy

  Woodrow Wilson (1916). “Wit and Wisdom of Woodrow Wilson: Extracts from the Public Speeches of the Leader and Interpreter of American Democracy, with Masterpieces of Eloquence”, Best Books

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• Democracy means that anyone can grow up to be president, and anyone who doesn't grow up can be vice president.

  Johnny Carson

  Growing Up, Mean, President

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• If experience teaches us anything at all, it teaches us this: that a good politician, under democracy, is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.

  H. L. Mencken

  Politics, Honest, Politician

  H.L. MENCKEN (1958). “PREJUDICES A SELECTION”

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• No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.

  Mark Twain

  Life, Trust, Freedom

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• America's support for human rights and democracy is our noblest export to the world.

  William Bennett

  Rights, America, Support

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• At the bottom of all the tributes paid to democracy is the little man, walking into the little booth, with a little pencil, making a little cross on a little bit of paper. . . .

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Men, Paper, Littles

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• The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness which the ambitious call, and ignorant believe to be liberty.

  Fisher Ames

  Believe, Ignorant, Liberty

  Fisher Ames (1809). “Works of Fisher Ames, compiled by a number of his friends”, p.384

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• Democracy is just a word. You have to give it meaning. The US is not a democracy. Most Americans do not vote. We haven't had a real choice for a long, long time now. Wealth rules. Corporations rule. The US is a plutocracy - government by wealthy people. Certain people control multinational corporations. You couldn't get elected in the US without lots of money.

  Ramsey Clark

  Money, Real, Government

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• The survival of democracy depends on the renunciation of violence and the development of nonviolent means to combat evil and advance the good.

  A. J. Muste

  Mean, Evil, Survival

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• If our democracy is to flourish, it must have criticism; if our government is to function it must have dissent.

  Henry Steele Commager

  Government, Liberty, Criticism

  "Freedom, Loyalty, Dissent". Book by Henry Steele Commager, 1954.

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• The United States is not for democracy in Iraq, it's for setting up a puppet government.

  Peter Camejo

  Pregnancy, Government, Iraq

  "Raw Data: Foxnews.com Interviews Peter Camejo". Foxnews.com Interview, www.foxnews.com. February 17, 2004.

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• If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Motivational, Religious, Freedom

  Civil Disobedience (1849) See Savio 1

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• Democracy is finding proximate solutions to insoluble problems.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Problem, Findings, Solutions

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• I suspect that democracy is not viable in a technologically advanced society. Free people wield too much ability to destroy.

  Daniel Suarez

  People, Too Much, Ability

  "Daemon". Book by Daniel Suarez, 2006.

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• We are usually convinced more easily by reasons we have found ourselves than by those which have occurred to others.

  Blaise Pascal

  Freedom, Reason, Found

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• A democracy is more than a form of government; it is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience.

  John Dewey

  Government, Form, Castes

  John Dewey, Jo Ann Boydston, Sidney Hook (2008). “The Middle Works of John Dewey, 1899-1924, Volume 9: 1916, Democracy and Education”, p.93, SIU Press

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• Democracy no longer works for the poor if politicians treat them as a separate race.

  Frank Field

  Race, Political, Politics

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• I do not admire 'the people,' as such. No one really does. Their folk wisdom is usually false, their instincts predatory. Even their sense of survival - so highly developed in the individual - goes berserk in the mass. A crowd is a fool.

  Gore Vidal

  People, Survival, Fool

  "Views From a Window". Book by Robert J. Stanton, Gore Vidal, www.nytimes.com. 1980.

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• In a democracy the majority of citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority...and that oppression of the majority will extend to far great number, and will be carried on with much greater fury, than can almost ever be apprehended from the dominion of a single sceptre. Under a cruel prince they have the plaudits of the people to animate their generous constancy under their sufferings; but those who are subjected to wrong under multitudes are deprived of all external consolation: they seem deserted by mankind, overpowered by a conspiracy of their whole species.

  Edmund Burke

  Exercise, Numbers, People

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• Democracy shows not only its power in reforming governments, but in regenerating a race of men and this is the greatest blessing of free governments.

  Andrew Jackson

  Blessing, Men, Race

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• The way people in democracies think of the government as something different from themselves is a real handicap. And, of course, sometimes the government confirms their opinion.

  Lewis Mumford

  Real, Thinking, Government

  "Philosophers of the Earth: Conversations with Ecologists". Book by Anne Chisholm, 1972.

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• But government in which the majority rule in all cases can not be based on justice, even as far as men understand it.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Majority Rule, Justice

  Henry David Thoreau, Nancy L. Rosenblum (1996). “Thoreau: Political Writings”, p.2, Cambridge University Press

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