Democratic Quotes - Page 34

• This massive ascendancy of corporate power over democratic process is probably the most ominous development since the end of World War II, and for the most part "the free world" seems to be regarding it as merely normal.

  Wendell Berry

  War, Development, World

  Wendell Berry (2010). “Bringing It to the Table: On Farming and Food (Large Print 16pt)”, p.85, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• We still (sometimes) remember that we cannot be free if our minds and voices are controlled by someone else. But we have neglected to understand that we cannot be free if our food and its sources are controlled by someone else. The condition of the passive consumer of food is not a democratic condition. One reason to eat responsibly is to live free. (pg. 323, The Pleasures of Eating)

  Wendell Berry

  Voice, Mind, Remember

  Wendell Berry (2010). “Bringing It to the Table: On Farming and Food (Large Print 16pt)”, p.12, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• The democratic principle, enunciated in the words of the Declaration of Independence, declared that government was secondary, that the people who established it were primary. Thus, the future of democracy depended on the people, and their growing consciousness of what was the decent way to relate to their fellow human beings all over the world.

  Howard Zinn

  Government, People, Independence

  Howard Zinn (2015). “A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present”, p.682, Routledge

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• For nothing is more democratic than logic; it is no respecter of persons and makes no distinction between crooked and straight noses.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Noses, Logic, Distinction

  Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1974). “The Gay Science: With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs”, Vintage

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• The marriage institution cannot exist among slaves, and one sixth of the population of democratic America is denied it's privileges by the law of the land. What is to be thought of a nation boasting of its liberty, boasting of it's humanity, boasting of its Christianity, boasting of its love of justice and purity, and yet having within its own borders three millions of persons denied by law the right of marriage?

  Frederick Douglass

  Love, America, Law

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• Famines are easy to prevent if there is a serious effort to do so, and a democratic government, facing elections and criticisms from opposition parties and independent newspapers, cannot help but make such an effort. Not surprisingly, while India continued to have famines under British rule right up to independence... they disappeared suddenly with the establishment of a multiparty democracy and... a free press and an active political opposition constitute the best early-warning system a country threaten by famines can have.

  Amartya Sen

  Country, Party, Independent

  "The 'Silently' Creeping Famine" by Alemayehu G. Mariam, www.huffingtonpost.com. April 18, 2010.

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• There’s no democratic state that’s not compromised to the very core by its part in generating human misery.

  Gilles Deleuze

  Misery, States, Humans

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• Standing in a two-hour line makes people worry that they're not living in a democratic nation. People stand in line for two houres and they go over the edge.

  David Sedaris

  Two, People, Worry

  David Sedaris (2009). “Holidays on Ice”, p.27, Hachette UK

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• Nature is typified by strength; humanity by weakness. Nature adheres to an immutable order; humanity to an ever-increasing chaos. Nature recognizes no equality at any level of it's order; humanity preaches an all-prevasive equality and freely hands-out unearned "rights" in an attempt to make its doctrine a living reality. In short: humanity is Democratic, nature is Fascist.

  Boyd Rice

  Reality, Rights, Hands

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• 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

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• 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.

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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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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• And when the Patrician was unhappy, he became very democratic. He found intricate and painful ways of spreading that unhappiness as far as possible.

  Terry Pratchett

  Unhappy, Way, Painful

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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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• A good design is not a democratic consensus.

  Edward de Bono

  Business, Motivation, Design

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• In science, all facts, no matter how trivial or banal, enjoy democratic equality.

  Mary McCarthy

  Science, Equality, Literature

  Mary McCarthy (1964). “The humanist in the bathtub”

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• Democratic communities have a natural taste for freedom: left to themselves they will seek it, cherish it, and view any deprivation of it with regret. But for equality their passion is ardent, insatiable, incessant, invincible: they call for equality in freedom; and if they cannot obtain that, they still call for equality in slavery.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Regret, Passion, Equality

  "Democracy in America". Book by Alexis de Tocqueville, Volume II. Book Two, Chapter I, 1840.

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• Intellectual freedom is the only guarantee of a scientific - democratic approach to politics, economic development, and culture.

  Andrei Sakharov

  Freedom, Intellectual, Democracy

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• Fifty-one percent of a nation can establish a totalitarian regime, suppress minorities and still remain democratic.

  Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn

  Freedom, Government, Democracy

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• Democratic institutions form a system of quarantine for tyrannical desires.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Freedom, Democracies Have, Democracy

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