Democratic Society Quotes

• The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Wisdom, Quality, Citizens

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• I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities.

  Nelson Mandela

  Wisdom, Opportunity, Equality

  Statement at trial, Johannesburg, South Africa, 20 Apr. 1964

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• Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.

  John F. Kennedy

  4th Of July, Responsibility, Past

  John F. Kennedy's Speech at Loyola College Alumni Banquet, Baltimore, Maryland, www.jfklibrary.org. February 18, 1958.

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• During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.

  Nelson Mandela

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Success

  FaceBook post by Nelson Mandela from Apr 20, 2014

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• The Holocaust also shows us how a combination of events and attitudes can erode a society's democratic values.

  Tim Holden

  Attitude, Holocaust, Events

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• Let us not despair but act. Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past - let us accept our own responsibility for the future.

  John F. Kennedy

  4th Of July, Politics Today, Answers

  Speech at Loyola College Alumni Banquet, Baltimore, Maryland, on February 18, 1958. "John F. Kennedy Quotations: Profiles in Courage Quotations", www.jfklibrary.org.

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• Party politics in modern democratic society means pandering to a wide variety of different groups and sympathizing with their often quite base motives, such as revenge, power, booty, and spoils, to maintain the necessary level of support.

  Randal Marlin

  Revenge, Party, Mean

  Randal Marlin (2013). “Propaganda and the Ethics of Persuasion - Second Edition”, p.159, Broadview Press

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• I believe that a guarantee of public access to government information is indispensable in the long run for any democratic society.... if officials make public only what they want citizens to know, then publicity becomes a sham and accountability meaningless.

  Sissela Bok

  Running, Believe, Government

  Sissela Bok (2011). “Secrets: On the Ethics of Concealment and Revelation”, p.179, Vintage

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• Terrorism takes us back to ages we thought were long gone if we allow it a free hand to corrupt democratic societies and destroy the basic rules of international life.

  Jacques Chirac

  Hands, Long, Age

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

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• But we don't have an example of a democratic society existing in a socialist economy - which is the only real alternative to capitalism in the modern world.

  Peter L. Berger

  Real, Socialist Economy, Example

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• One of the main purposes of laws in a democratic society is to put burdens upon intelligence and reduce it to impotence. Ostensibly, their aim is to penalize anti-social acts; actually their aim is to penalize heretical opinions. At least ninety-five Americans out of every 100 believe that this process is honest and even laudable; it is practically impossible to convince them that there is anything evil in it. In other words, they cannot grasp the concept of liberty.

  H. L. Mencken

  Business, Believe, Law

  "Liberty and Democracy". Baltimore Evening Sun (April 13, 1925) as quoted in "A Second Mencken Chrestomathy: A New Selection from the Writings of America's Legendary Editor, Critic, and Wit" edited by Terry Teachout (p. 35), 1994.

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• The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organised habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.

  Edward Bernays

  Country, Intelligent, Nwo

  Edward L. Bernays (1930). “Propaganda”

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• Sooner or later a democracy which is to survive has to be able to rely upon that enlargement of vision and purpose of those individuals who compose it, which means that their craving for devotion and self-sacrifice is satisfied in a democratic society on a nobler level, and with a finer recognition of the value of individual personality than is true of a national purpose of a totalitarian state under a dictator.

  Ordway Tead

  Mean, Sacrifice, Self

  Attributed to Ordway Tead in "The Forbes scrapbook of Thoughts on the business of life", p. 138, 1950.

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• The role of the teacher remains the highest calling of a free people. To the teacher, America entrusts her most precious resource, her children; and asks that they be prepared ... to face the rigors of individual participation in a democratic society.

  Shirley Hufstedler

  Teacher, Children, Teaching

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• The world has got more democracies than ever, and human rights are high on almost every country's agenda. Still, corruption and oppression are far too common threats to the democratic society. And we have seen a dramatic increase, the last 10-15 years, of ethnical conflicts and humanitarian crises with human rights violations as important elements., but also more of corruption. Human rights are praised more than ever - and violated as much as ever.

  Anna Lindh

  Country, Rights, Years

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• I stand for simple justice, equal opportunity and human rights. The indispensable elements in a democratic society - and well worth fighting for.

  Helen Suzman

  Inspirational, Fighting, Opportunity

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• Ultimately there can be no freedom for self unless it is vouchsafed for others; there can be no security where there is fear, and a democratic society presupposes confidence and candor in the relations of men with one another and eager collaboration for the larger ends of life instead of the pursuit of petty, selfish or vainglorious aims.

  Felix Frankfurter

  Freedom, Selfish, Men

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• I have tremendous confidence in the capacity of the poor to transform not only their own lives but also to build a just, humane, and democratic society.

  Ruth Manorama

  Justice, Society, Poverty

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• Ensuring the access of all citizens to government information and to essential information for human development is a must for every democratic society.

  Koichiro Matsuura

  Government, Society, Essentials

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• The aim of education is to enable individuals to continue their education ... (and) the object and reward of learning is continued capacity for growth. Now this idea cannot be applied to all the members of a society except where intercourse of man with man is mutual, and except where there is adequate provision for the reconstruction of social habits and institutions by means of wide stimulation arising from equitably distributed interests. And this means a democratic society.

  John Dewey

  Change, Education, Mean

  John Dewey (2012). “Democracy and Education”, p.96, Courier Corporation

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• The truths of the Judaic-Christian tradition, are infinitely precious, not only, as I believe, because they are true, but also because they provide the moral impulse which alone can lead to that peace, in the true meaning of the word, for which we all long. . . . There is little hope for democracy if the hearts of men and women in democratic societies cannot be touched by a call to something greater than themselves.

  Margaret Thatcher

  Faith, Christian, Hope

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• Where utopianism is advanced through gradualism rather than revolution, albeit steady and persistent as in democratic societies, it can deceive and disarm an unsuspecting population, which is largely content and passive. It is sold as reforming and improving the existing society's imperfections and weaknesses without imperiling its basic nature. Under these conditions, it is mostly ignored, dismissed, or tolerated by much of the citizenry and celebrated by some. Transformation is deemed innocuous, well-intentioned, and perhaps constructive but not a dangerous trespass on fundamental liberties.

  Mark Levin

  Imperfection, Liberty, Weakness

  Mark R. Levin (2012). “Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America”, p.7, Simon and Schuster

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• Is it a democratic society that condemns people to the accident of conception? What are we-monkeys? If you expect people to be responsible for their children, you have to give them the right to choose whether or not to have children. What are you people thinking of? You're not only crazy! You're ogres!

  John Irving

  Thinking Of You, Children, Crazy

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• Each American must remember and help America remember that the fellowship of human beings is more important than the fellowship of race and class and gender in a democratic society.

  Marian Wright Edelman

  Race, Class, America

  "Staying on the March - Right Now" by Marian Wright Edelman, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 13, 2015.

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• The idea that each individual has intrinsic, God-given value and is of infinite worth quite apart from any social contribution - an idea most pagans would have rejected as absurd - persists today as the ethical basis of western law and politics. Our secularized western idea of democratic society owes much to that early Christian vision of a new society - a society no longer formed by the natural bonds of family, tribe, or nation but by the voluntary choice of its members.

  Elaine Pagels

  Christian, Women, Law

  Elaine Pagels (2011). “Adam, Eve, and the Serpent: Sex and Politics in Early Christianity”, p.81, Vintage

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