Democratic Quotes - Page 28

• I think violence is counter-productive and it is bad in democratic societies.

  Pierre Trudeau

  Thinking, Violence, Productive

  Source: presbyterianrecord.ca

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• In the run-up to the 1992 Democratic convention, Clinton's campaign realized that voters thought the young governor had a privileged upbringing. They didn't buy his alleged concern for the middle class.

  Dee Dee Myers

  Running, Class, Campaigns

  4 Copy quote

• The reason societies with democratic governments are better places to live in than their alternatives isn't because of some goodness intrinsic to democracy, but because its hopeless inefficiency helps blunt the basic potential for evil.

  Nathan Myhrvold

  Government, Evil, Democracy

  4 Copy quote

• The only difference between the Republican and Democratic parties is the velocities with which their knees hit the floor when corporations knock on their door. That's the only difference.

  Ralph Nader

  Party, Doors, Differences

  66 Copy quote

• Let people realize clearly that every time they threaten someone or humiliate or unnecessarily hurt or dominate or reject another human being, they become forces for the creation of psychopathology, even if these be small forces. Let them recognize that every person who is kind, helpful, decent, psychologically democratic, affectionate, and warm, is a psychotheraputic force, even though a small one.

  Abraham Maslow

  Hurt, People, Helpful

  281 Copy quote

• If there is one fact we really can prove, from the history that we really do know, it is that despotism can be a development, often a late development and very often indeed the end of societies that have been highly democratic. A despotism may almost be defined as a tired democracy. As fatigue falls on a community, the citizens are less inclined for that eternal vigilance which has truly been called the price of liberty; and they prefer to arm only one single sentinel to watch the city while they sleep.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Fall, Tired, Sleep

  "The Everlasting Man". Book by G. K. Chesterton, 1925.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It didn’t matter the quality of the writing— Callie’s fantasies about her fictional heroes were entirely democratic.

  Sarah MacLean

  Hero, Writing, Quality

  Sarah MacLean (2010). “Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake”, p.22, Harper Collins

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Being democratic is not enough, a majority cannot turn what is wrong into right. In order to be considered truly free, countries must also have a deep love of liberty and an abiding respect for the rule of law.

  Margaret Thatcher

  Country, Deep Love, Order

  21 Copy quote

• Our duty to the whole, including the unborn generations, bids us to restrain an unprincipled present-day minority from wasting the heritage of these unborn generations. The movement for the conservation of wildlife and the larger movement for the conservation of all our natural resources are essentially democratic in spirit, purpose, and method.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Generations, Minorities, Purpose

  Theodore Roosevelt (2010). “The Green Roosevelt: Theodore Roosevelt in Appreciation of Wilderness, Wildlife, and Wild Places”, p.359, Cambria Press

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• I’m “exceptional”- a democratic term used to avoid the damning labels of “gifted” and “deprived” (which used to mean “bright” and “retarded”) and as soon as “exceptional” begins to mean anything to anyone they’ll change it. The idea seems to be: use an expression as long as it doesn’t mean anything to anybody. “Exceptional” refers to both ends of the spectrum, so all my life I’ve been exceptional.

  Daniel Keyes

  Mean, Expression, Ideas

  Daniel Keyes (2007). “Flowers for Algernon”, p.153, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• The courtroom is one instance of the fact that while our society may be liberal and democratic in some large and vague sense, its moving parts, its smaller chambers--its classrooms, its workplaces, its corporate boardrooms, its jails, its military barracks--are flagrantly undemocratic, dominated by one commanding person or a tiny elite of power.

  Howard Zinn

  Military, Moving, Jail

  Howard Zinn (2010). “You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times”, p.151, Beacon Press

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• To meet the expectations of the majority of our people, and to open up new vistas of economic opportunity so that the aspirations of Nigerians can stand a fair chance of being fulfilled in a lifetime, there must be a truly committed leadership in a democratic Nigeria.

  Ibrahim Babangida

  Opportunity, People, Expectations

  8 Copy quote

• Democratic power is the only voice most citizens have.

  Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero

  Voice, Citizens

  4 Copy quote

• In view of Chinas growing military strength and intentions, the best way to safeguard Asias permanent peace and prosperity is to have all Asian countries join forces with other democratic countries in the world to form a global community of democracies.

  Jim Costa

  Country, Military, Views

  44 Copy quote

• The freedom to own and carry the weapon of your choice is a natural, fundamental, and inalienable human, individual, civil, and Constitutional right - subject neither to the democratic process nor to arguments grounded in social utility.

  L. Neil Smith

  Choices, Fundamentals, Weapons

  8 Copy quote

• All of this is on account we want to register [sic], to become first-class citizens, and if the Freedom Democratic Party is not seated now, I question America. Is this America, the land of the free and the home of the brave where we have to sleep with our telephones off the hooks because our lives be threatened daily because we want to live as decent human beings - in America?

  Fannie Lou Hamer

  Party, Home, Sleep

  Testimony Before the Credentials Committee, Democratic National Convention, delivered 22 August 1964

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• Nothing will motivate conservative evangelical Christians to vote Republican in the 2008 presidential election more than a Democratic nominee named Hillary Rodham Clinton - not even a run by the devil himself ... I certainly hope that Hillary is the candidate. She has $300 million so far. But I hope she's the candidate. Because nothing will energize my [constituency] like Hillary Clinton. If Lucifer ran, he wouldn't.

  Jerry Falwell

  Christian, Running, Presidential

  14 Copy quote

• Because they don't teach the truth about the world, schools have to rely on beating students over the head with propaganda about democracy. If schools were, in reality, democratic, there would be no need to bombard students with platitudes about democracy. They would simply act and behave democratically, and we know this does not happen. The more there is a need to talk about the ideals of democracy, the less democratic the system usually is.

  Noam Chomsky

  School, Reality, Democracy

  Noam Chomsky (2004). “Chomsky on Mis-Education”, p.16, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

  29 Copy quote

  Show source

• The Socialist Party will no longer be running a candidate for president. The Democratic Party is leading this country to Socialism much faster than we could ever hope to.

  Norman Thomas

  Country, Running, Party

  57 Copy quote

• Las Vegas is Everymans cut-rate Babylon. Not far away there is, or was, a roadside lunch counter and over it a sign proclaiming in three words that a Roman emperors orgy is now a democratic institution. 'Topless Pizza Lunch'.

  Alistair Cooke

  Food, Cutting, Lunch

  9 Copy quote

• Richard Nixon has never been one of my favorite people anyway. For years I've regarded his existence as a monument to all the rancid genes and broken chromosomes that corrupt the possibilities of the American Dream; he was a foul caricature of himself, a man with no soul, no inner convictions, with the integrity of a hyena and the style of a poison toad. The Nixon I remembered was absolutely humorless; I couldn't imagine him laughing at anything except maybe a paraplegic who wanted to vote Democratic but couldn't quite reach the lever on the voting machine.

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Dream, Integrity, Men

  "Pageant" Magazine, July 1968.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• I went to the Democratic Convention as a journalist, and returned a cold-blooded revolutionary.

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Cold, Revolutionary, Conventions

  "Fear and Loathing in America: The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist" by Douglas Brinkley, (p. xvi), 2000.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Overregulation stifles creativity. It smothers innovation. It gives dinosaurs a veto over the future. It wastes the extraordinary opportunity for a democratic creativity that digital technology enables.

  Lawrence Lessig

  Creativity, Technology, Opportunity

  Lawrence Lessig (2004). “Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity”, p.151, Penguin

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Once upon a time, the most successful Democratic leader of them all, FDR, looked south and said I see one third of a nation ill-housed, ill clad, ill nourished. Today our national Democratic leaders look south and say, I see one third of a nation and it can go to hell.

  Zell Miller

  Successful, Leader, Once Upon A Time

  "Meet the Press" with Tim Russert, votesmart.org. November 2, 2003.

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• Motivated more by partisan politics than by national security, todays Democratic leaders see America as an occupier, not a liberator. And nothing makes this Marine madder than someone calling American troops occupiers rather than liberators.

  Zell Miller

  Marine, America, Leader

  2004 Republican National Convention Address, delivered 1 September 2004, Madison Square Garden, New York

  8 Copy quote

  Show source