Democracy Quotes - Page 63

It's fair to say that, for much of my lifetime, New Zealand certainly was a property-owning democracy and working people, ordinary people, had assets.

In a democracy, society must recognize that the individual has rights which are guaranteed, and the individual must recognize that he has responsibilities which are not to be evaded.

In effective, sustained citizen action, people learn the skills of public life with which to act effectively. "Commons," or the common wealth-the public goods that are objects of sustainable public action-become not only occasions for collaboration by invaluable sources of citizen education in their own right because they are the occasions for learning such skills.

The Athenian democracy suffered much from that narrowness of patriotism which is the ruin of all nations.

Democracy is like blowing your nose. You may not do it well, but it's something you ought to do yourself.

Democracy if it meant what our forefathers said, that would be great but unfortunately it's been corrupted by this funding and funding of campaigns. There's a much better way to do it. There could be a small amount of money given by every taxpayer to be dedicated to candidates.

Democracy is susceptible to being led astray by having scapegoats paraded in front of the electorate.

A democracy cannot flourish half rich and half poor, any more than it can flourish half free and half slave.

I think we can build democracy in Pakistan. But it will take time. And it will be a Pakistani democracy. Not one that's imposed by...someone else.

We say that if America has entered the war to make the world safe for democracy, she must first make democracy safe in America.

Democracy's real test lies in its respect for minority opinion.

I am very worried about this concentration of power, and it's not only because of Erdogan. We have the ballot box, but we don't have the culture of democracy. The government says: You see, we have the majority, we're entitled to do anything we want. But that's not democracy, that's majoritarianism.

To be a citizen in a democracy, a human being must be given a healthy start.

The very essence of democracy is the absolute faith that while people must cooperate, the first function of democracy, its peculiar gift, is to develop each individual into everything that he might be.

Democracy is itself, a religious faith. For some it comes close to being the only formal religion they have.

No one can define or measure justice, democracy, security, freedom, truth, or love. No one can define or measure any value. But if no one speaks up for them, if systems aren’t designed to produce them, if we don’t speak about them and point toward their presence or absence, they will cease to exist.

It is far more honest to be undeservedly ignored than to be honoured without merit.

The truth then is, that the Russian Comintern is still confessedly engaged in endeavoring to foment war in order to facilitate revolution, and that one of its chief organizers, Lozovsky, has been installed as principal adviser to Molotov...A few months ago he wrote in the French publication, L Vie Ouvriere...that his chief aim in life is the overthrow of the existing order in the great Democracies.

When public access to voting is impaired or when public confidence in voting is diluted, democracy suffers and our freedom is less secure.

Capitalism has defeated communism. It is now well on its way to defeating democracy.

Democracy: In which you say what you like and do what you're told.

Europe tends to favor stability over democracy, America democracy over stability.

But I think we need to remember that democracy everywhere is by its nature incomplete, a work in progress.

How can we be enemies when there is so much that pulls us together? But in general I found that I had to work with each one of my foreign colleagues in a way that was consistent with their system. Some are democracies, some are not.

I've not much faith in the future of the planet and I'm not just thinking about Mr. Bush or global warming. I feel that we've lost our way and it looks as if, in so many fields, things are turning sour. Even democracy is turning sour, isn't it?