Democracy Quotes - Page 23

The reason that democracies always defeat dictatorships is because they're open to debate. We should never allow Washington to say, 'Shut up, get in line and wave the flag.'

It is not our diversity which divides us; it is not our ethnicity, or religion or culture that divides us. Since we have achieved our freedom, there can only be one division amongst us: between those who cherish democracy and those who do not.

Democracy has turned out to be not majority rule but rule by well-organized and well-connected minority groups who steal from the majority.

But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags that time cannot decay, I'm junk but I'm still holding up this little wild bouquet: Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

Small use it will be to save democracy for the race if we cannot save the race for democracy.

The Constitution is America's glue, Democracy is the Constitution's glue.

Until democracy in effective enthusiastic action fills the vacuum created by the power of modern inventions, we may expect the fascists to increase in power after the war both in the United States and in the world.

I confess I enjoy democracy immensely. It is incomparably idiotic, and hence incomparably amusing.

In a democracy, the public has a right to know not only what the government decides, but why and by what process.

Politics needs a flexible mind, for it has no immutable or eternal rules. In politics immutable or eternal rules lead to inevitable and swift defeat.

Democracy, by its very nature, can't be imposed on people. Democracy has to be the people deciding for themselves.

Inequality hardens society into a class system. Inequality divides us from one another... Inequality undermines democracy.

And when we draw lines in the sand with regard to certain basic things that are vital to our interest and to the interest of democracy and our friends around the world, we have to be willing to back that up

Democracy must first be safe for America before it can be safe for the world.

Any comparison between the military dictatorship and democracy can only come from those who do not value the Brazilian democracy.

Rumors are nearly as old as human history, but with the rise of the Internet, they have become ubiquitous. In fact we are now awash in them. False rumors are especially troublesome; they impose real damage on individuals and institutions, and they often resist correction. They can threaten careers, policies, public officials, and sometimes even democracy itself.

The problem with the West is that they start with political reform going towards democracy.

Tyranny and despotism can be exercised by many, more rigorously, more vigorously, and more severely, than by one.

The only distinction that democracies reward is a high degree of conformity.

Organized business has assumed that greater profits would be pretty much of a cure-all, and it has to a major extent ignored the fact that the welfare of business rests upon the welfare of the consumers of a nation; that business or free enterprise will function in a democracy only so long as the democracy functions.

Democracy feeds on argument, on the discussion as to the right way forward. This is the reason why respecting the opinion of others belongs to democracy.

The era of using people as production tools is coming to an end. Participation is infinitely more complex to practice than conventional corporate unilateralism, just as democracy is much more cumbersome than dictatorship. But there will be few companies that can afford to ignore either of them.

The deadliest foe of democracy is not autocracy but liberty frenzied. Liberty is not foolproof. For its beneficent working it demands self-restraint, a sane and clear recognition of the practical and attainable, and of the fact that there are laws of nature which are beyond our power to change.

Popular congresses are the only means to achieve popular democracy. Any system of government other than popular congresses is undemocratic.

If you are called upon to govern humans, treat them humanely.