Democracies Have Quotes - Page 4

The aim of education is to enable individuals to continue their education — or that the object and reward of learning is continued capacity for growth.

The boundaries of democracy have to be widened so as to include economic equality also. This is the great revolution through which we are all passing.

Those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

Let the people think they govern and they will be governed.

Where freedom of religion has been attacked, the attack has come from sources opposed to democracy. Where democracy has been overthrown, the spirit of free worship has disappeared. And where religion and democracy have vanished, good faith and reason in international affairs have given way to strident ambition and brute force.

A well-functioning democracy has a culture of free speech, not simply legal protection of free speech. It encourages independence of mind. It imparts a willingness to challenge prevailing opinion through both words and deeds. Equally important, it encourages a certain set of attitudes in listeners, one that gives a respectful hearing to those who do not embrace the conventional wisdom. In a culture of free speech, the attitude of listeners is no less important than that of speakers.

Democracy becomes a government of bullies tempered by editors.

Democracy is based upon the conviction that there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people.

Advocating democracy has, by other people, often been taken as a form of imperialism, and not without some justification. So the important thing in a democracy is that it doesn't necessarily have to agree with what America's interests are, and it doesn't necessarily have to be serving American interests.

When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong.

Everybody's for democracy in principle. It's only in practice that the thing gives rise to stiff objections.

It is a besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law. This is the usual form in which masses of men exhibit their tyranny.

The world is weary of statesmen whom democracy has degraded into politicians.

Democracy! Bah! When I hear that I reach for my feather boa!

Democracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they are the powers that ought to be.

Democracy and religion stand or fall together. Where democracy has been destroyed, religion has been doomed. Where religion has been trampled down, democracy has ceased to exist.... Tyrants have come and have had their day and then have passed while religion has survived them all.

Democracy has no convictions for which people would be willing to stake their lives.

All deductions having been made, democracy has done less harm, and more good, than any other form of government. It gave to human existence a zest and camaraderie that outweighed its pitfalls and defects. It gave to thought and science and enterprise the freedom essential to their operation and growth. It broke down the walls of privilege and class, and in each generation it raised up ability from every rank and place.

Nor is the people's judgment always true: the most may err as grossly as the few.

It may be concluded that a pure democracy . . . can admit no cure for the mischiefs of faction.

Capitalism under democracy has a further advantage: its enemies, even when it is attacked, are scattered and weak, and it is usually easily able to array one half of them against the other half, and thus dispose of both.

The greatest task of democracy, its ritual and feast - is choice.

Democratic institutions form a system of quarantine for tyrannical desires.

Democracy needs support, and the best support for democracy comes from other democracies.

Elections belong to the people. It's their decision.