Democracy Quotes

Democracy cannot consist solely of elections that are nearly always fictitious and managed by rich landowners and professional politicians.

To protest against injustice is the foundation of all our American democracy.

Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms.

People are always teaching us democracy but the people who teach us democracy don't want to learn it themselves.

Americans like to talk about (or be told about) Democracy but, when put to the test, usually find it to be an 'inconvenience.' We have opted instead for an authoritarian system disguised as a Democracy. We pay through the nose for an enormous joke-of-a-government, let it push us around, and then wonder how all those assholes got in there.

The process of democracy is one of change. Our laws are not frozen into immutable form, they are constantly in the process of revision in response to the needs of a changing society.

True democracy or the swaraj of the masses can never come through untruthful and violent means.

Democracy is necessarily despotism, as it establishes an executive power contrary to the general will; all being able to decide against one whose opinion may differ, the will of all is therefore not that of all: which is contradictory and opposite to liberty.

You know better than I that in a Republic talent is always suspect. A man attains an elevated position only when his mediocrity prevents him from being a threat to others. And for this reason a democracy is never governed by the most competent, but rather by those whose insignificance will not jeopardize anyone else's self-esteem.

My people are going to learn the principles of democracy, the dictates of truth and the teachings of science. Superstition must go.

We, in Africa, have no more need of being 'converted' to socialism than we have of being 'taught' democracy. Both are rooted in our past -- in the traditional society which produced us.

You and I have never seen democracy; all we've seen is hypocrisy.

A democracy is no more than an aristocracy of orators. The people are so readily moved by demagogues that control must be exercised by the government over speech and press.

Democracy is a system where people are counted not weighed.

Democracy is just a filler for textbooks! Do you actually believe that public opinion influences the government?

Without God, there is no virtue because there is no prompting of the conscience... without God, there is a coarsening of the society; without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure.

The rule of law should be respected so that the basic structure of our democracy is maintained and further strengthened.

There comes a time in the life of every nation when it stands at the cross-roads of history and must choose which way to go. But for us there need be no difficulty or hesitation, no looking to right or left. Our way is straight and clear—the building up of a socialist democracy at home with freedom and prosperity for all, and the maintenance of world peace and friendship with all nations.

If we desire a society without discrimination, then we must not discriminate against anyone in the process of building this society. If we desire a society that is democratic, then democracy must become a means as well as an end.

Secularism is not only in our constitution but also in our veins. We worship Mother Nature too. We believe that the world is our family.

No famine has ever taken place in the history of the world in a functioning democracy.

Democracy, Republic: What do these words signify? What have they changed in the world? Have men become better, more loyal, kinder? Are the people happier? All goes on as before, as always. Illusions, illusions.

There is no democracy without socialism, and no socialism without democracy.

The cornerstone of democracy rests on the foundation of an educated electorate.

Democracy is the road to socialism.