Quotes on Democracy

We have accepted the principle of democracy and we are committed to respect the popular verdict and the result of that national consultation.

Author: Mahmoud Abbas

Democracy is not something you put away for ten years, and then in the 11th year you wake up and start practicing again. We have to begin to learn to rule ourselves again.

Author: Chinua Achebe

The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections.

Author: Lord Acton

Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.

Author: John Adams

The better the information it has, the better democracy works. Silence and secrecy are never good for it.

Author: Kate Adie

In Iran the whole reform and democracy movement has been based on the emerging free press.

Author: Christiane Amanpour

A democracy is a volcano which conceals the fiery materials of its own destruction. These will produce an eruption and carry desolation in their way.

Author: Fisher Ames

The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness which the ambitious call, and the ignorant believe to be liberty.

Author: Fisher Ames

Jeans represent democracy in fashion.

Author: Giorgio Armani

Fundamentalists are not friends of democracy. And that includes your fundamentalists in the United States.

Author: Karen Armstrong

I sow; my successor reaps. This is the majesty of democracy.

Author: Gloria Arroyo

I pray that this council, which will probably be too late to save Iraq, will do what it can, which will be immeasurably strong in what it does in trying to save our democracy.

Author: Ed Asner

I believe in trade unionism, and I believe in democracy, in democratic trade unionism.

Author: Richard Attenborough

Democracy opens new vistas and opportunities. We should use the opportunities it offers to correct past mistakes not to blunder anew.

Author: Ibrahim Babangida

Democracy is now going forth on a crusade against imperialism.

Author: Irving Babbitt

If a man went simply by what he saw, he might be tempted to affirm that the essence of democracy is melodrama.

Author: Irving Babbitt

Texas has a lot of challenges, but if I choose to run I will talk about opening democracy to mainstream Texans and not just to a closed circle of entrenched ideologues.

Author: Chris Bell

The primal principle of democracy is the worth and dignity of the individual.

Author: Edward Bellamy

Let me say again that the relationship is asymmetrical: there's no democracy without a market economy, but you can have a market economy without democracy.

Author: Peter Berger

So I think one can say on empirical grounds - not because of some philosophical principle - that you can't have democracy unless you have a market economy.

Author: Peter Berger

If you say simply that pressures toward democracy are created by the market, I would say yes.

Author: Peter Berger

Ignorance is an evil weed, which dictators may cultivate among their dupes, but which no democracy can afford among its citizens.

Author: William Beveridge

Propaganda is to a democracy what violence is to a dictatorship.

Author: William Blum

The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a democracy should be the weapon of openness.

Author: Niels Bohr

I'm much more attracted personally to governments going their full term. It's very hard to have a fixed term election I know with ah... a parliamentary democracy, but I've always had an instinct to say there should be a fixed term.

Author: Jim Bolger

Politicians, no matter who they are, shouldn't be able to manipulate the public on a single issue and then call an election at the height of support - that's a little bit of a manipulation of democracy.

Author: Jim Bolger

Violence is hidden within democratic structures because they are not radically democratic - Western democracy is merely a domestic convenience of consumerism.

Author: Edward Bond

In brief, Western democracy, as other political models, is not exportable to all regions of the world.

Author: Omar Bongo

Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.

Author: James Bovard

Only a knowledgeable, empowered and vocal citizenry can perform well in democracy.

Author: David Brin

We must take proactive steps to promote democracy and human rights abroad.

Author: Sam Brownback

The E.U. is more than just a trade organization or a common market; it is a guarantee of democracy, freedom, justice, and human rights. Nations cannot stay in the E.U. if they do not respect these guarantees.

Author: John Bruton

I like the noise of democracy.

Author: James Buchanan

In a democracy, the majority of the citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority.

Author: Edmund Burke

You can't put democracy and freedom back into a box.

Author: George Bush

Democracy means that anyone can grow up to be president, and anyone who doesn't grow up can be vice president.

Author: Johnny Carson

The view that we hold in Iraq now is this - that democracy is associated with elections. I believe that elections are possible.

Author: Ahmed Chalabi

Either we are all free, or we fail; democracy must belong to all of us.

Author: Dennis Chavez

We're not perfect, but we do have democracy.

Author: Hugo Chavez

Television is democracy at its ugliest.

Author: Paddy Chayefsky

You can never have a revolution in order to establish a democracy. You must have a democracy in order to have a revolution.

Author: Gilbert Chesterton

Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around.

Author: Gilbert Chesterton

Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.

Author: Noam Chomsky

The stakes are very high for us in Haiti. We have many important interests there. Perhaps the most important to me is our interest in the promotion of democracy in this hemisphere.

Author: Warren Christopher

Those who abhors democracy would rarely immigrate to an authoritarian state if they have to.

Author: Joe Chung

A marvel that has nothing to offer, democracy is at once a nation's paradise and its tomb.

Author: Emile Cioran

I think we're at risk with our democracy. I think we're dealing with the most closed, imperialistic, nastiest administration in living memory. They even put Richard Nixon to shame.

Author: Wesley Clark

The ship of democracy, which has weathered all storms, may sink through the mutiny of those on board.

Author: Grover Cleveland

No matter how many troops we have in place or how long they stay, we cannot impose a parliamentary democracy there any more than the insurgents can impose a theocracy.

Author: Nick Clooney

The closer Iraq approaches freedom and democracy, the more impediments and barriers the terrorists will erect.

Author: Howard Coble

Words like feminism or democracy scare me. They are words with barnacles on them, and you can't see what's underneath.

Author: William Collins

Democracy consists of choosing your dictators, after they've told you what you think it is you want to hear.

Author: Alan Coren

In Jefferson's mind democracy was tantamount to extreme individualism.

Author: Herbert Croly

Democracy, it appears, is a bit chancy. But its chances also depend on what we do ourselves.

Author: Robert Dahl

There is so much that can be done, you see, the assembly is about improving our democracy.

Author: Ron Davies

I have - I have more than an interesting task in piloting Wales into our new democracy, without wanting to exercise draconian powers on behalf of anybody else - I can assure of that.

Author: Ron Davies

When Bush says democracy, I often wonder what he's referring to.

Author: Angela Davis

I am more convinced than ever that a lively two party system is essential to our democracy.

Author: Stockwell Day

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

Author: Benjamin Disraeli

Democracy, like any non-coercive relationship, rests on a shared understanding of limits.

Author: Elizabeth Drew

Democracy don't rule the world, You'd better get that in your head; This world is ruled by violence, But I guess that's better left unsaid.

Author: Bob Dylan

Without democracy there is no freedom. Violence, no matter who is using it, is always reactionary.

Author: Friedrich Ebert

And it is essential that in fighting terrorism, sacrifices should not be made on democracy.

Author: Bulent Ecevit

Therefore, the question is not whether such democratization is possible, but instead how to meet the yearning of the masses in the Middle East for democracy; in other words, how to achieve democratization in the Middle East.

Author: Recep Erdogan

The US and the European Union needs to help in the translation of the demand for democracy into a political will.

Author: Recep Erdogan

What should be targeted is a concept of organic, and not just mechanic, democracy that preserves the rule of law, separation of powers, and that is participatory and pluralistic.

Author: Recep Erdogan

However, democracy cannot be defined as the existence of parliaments and elections alone.

Author: Recep Erdogan

In other words, the bar should be maintained at the level of a pluralistic and participatory democracy.

Author: Recep Erdogan

Democracy derailed is democracy denied.

Author: Chaka Fattah

A basic tenet of a healthy democracy is open dialogue and transparency.

Author: Peter Fenn

Democracy no longer works for the poor if politicians treat them as a separate race.

Author: Frank Field

I tell you, in my opinion, the cornerstone of democracy is free press - that's the cornerstone.

Author: Milos Forman

Republicans are pushing legislation forward that will improve the effectiveness of and bring more accountability to U.S. foreign assistance around the world and bring democracy even further into the light.

Author: Virginia Foxx

The Western world, the free world, loses what it cherishes most, and that is freedom and liberty we've seen for a couple of hundred years in this grand experiment that we call democracy.

Author: Tommy Franks

What we are doing in fact is recovering and progressing and sustaining the recovery of our democracy.

Author: Alberto Fujimori

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?

Author: Mohandas Gandhi

To find ways of practicing democracy, not ways of orating about it, is our great problem.

Author: Mary Gilson

Running a school where the students all succeed, even if some students have to help others to make the grade, is good preparation for democracy.

Author: William Glasser

Democracy must learn to defend itself.

Author: Mikhail Gorbachev

And they understand that to be an effective member of a democracy, you have to accept responsibility.

Author: Daniel Greenberg

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

Author: Meg Greenfield

I regard freedom of expression as the primary right without which one can not have a proper functioning democracy.

Author: Lord Hailsham

Democracy fascinates me.

Author: Lee Hamilton

Democracy makes us articulate our views, defend them, and refine them.

Author: Lee Hamilton

But despite this breathtaking pace, I believe in the capacity of our democracy to meet these challenges.

Author: Lee Hamilton

If we are to keep democracy, there must be a commandment: Thou shalt not ration justice.

Author: Learned Hand

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

Author: Sydney Harris

A sailing ship is no democracy; you don't caucus a crew as to where you'll go anymore than you inquire when they'd like to shorten sail.

Author: Sterling Hayden

Reading builds the educated and informed electorate so vital to our democracy.

Author: Brad Henry

You measure a democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists.

Author: Abbie Hoffman

Democracy for us tends to be has to do with who shouts the loudest!

Author: Peter Hook

While democracy must have its organization and controls, its vital breath is individual liberty.

Author: Charles Hughes

I swear to the Lord, I still can't see, why Democracy means, everybody but me.

Author: Langston Hughes

You would like me to say that the veil will be ripped from the voters' eyes sometime between now and November, thereby restoring the proper version of Democracy to the House and Senate. I won't say that, of course. The simple reason is, I don't know.

Author: Gwen Ifill

Liberty, freedom and democracy are very fuzzy words, but human rights is very specific.

Author: Joichi Ito

The deadliest foe of democracy is not autocracy but liberty frenzied.

Author: Otto Kahn

The Communists automatically violated the daily practices of democracy to which I was accustomed.

Author: Elia Kazan

The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.

Author: John Kennedy

In Ethiopia, democracy is in its infancy and it must be nurtured along by its leaders.

Author: Jack Kingston

We Chileans have to be able to understand that in a democracy institutions must function freely and with sovereignty.

Author: Ricardo Lagos

Free nations of the world cannot allow Taiwan, a beacon of democracy, to be subdued by an authoritarian China.

Author: Nick Lampson

Moreover, as we live in an era of the ascendancy of democracy and human rights, we must see that Taiwan has been a vibrant democracy with a democratically elected president and legislature.

Author: Nick Lampson

The more I see of democracy the more I dislike it. It just brings everything down to the mere vulgar level of wages and prices, electric light and water closets, and nothing else.

Author: David Lawrence

In order to build basic democracy here we'll need lives of two generations - at least forty years.

Author: Aleksandr Lebed

As I understand I took most so-called democratic states about 200 years on average to build their democracies. That is why, when we go to sleep under totalitarian rule and wake up in a democracy, it makes me laugh.

Author: Aleksandr Lebed

The last two elections were stolen. They were stolen and so we will not rest until we reclaim our democracy and this is what today is all about.

Author: Barbara Lee

Democracy is indispensable to socialism.

Author: Vladimir Lenin

Passive fatalism can never be the role of a revolutionary party, like the Social Democracy.

Author: Karl Liebknecht

Speak up! We live in a democracy. We all need to make sure our voices are heard and our opinions are known.

Author: Bill Lipinski

Maintain democracy or go to dictatorship: that is what is at stake in these elections.

Author: Mario Llosa

If we expose the Chinese to our freedoms, it may create a greater hunger for democracy, reform and liberties in China.

Author: Gary Locke

Democracy gives every man the right to be his own oppressor.

Author: James Lowell

I have always been of the mind that in a democracy manners are the only effective weapons against the bowie-knife.

Author: James Lowell

And in a democracy, when we say we're mad at what's going on, what we need to be saying is we're mad at ourselves.

Author: Mike Lowry

Amnesty International continues to report that extra judicial tortures and murders continue. This is not democracy that we are exporting to Mexico, and this is certainly not what the Mexican workers signed up for.

Author: Stephen Lynch

A modern democracy is a tyranny whose borders are undefined; one discovers how far one can go only by traveling in a straight line until one is stopped.

Author: Norman Mailer

Democracy is timelessly human, and timelessness always implies a certain amount of potential youthfulness.

Author: Thomas Mann

We always hear about the rights of democracy, but the major responsibility of it is participation.

Author: Wynton Marsalis

Democracy is the road to socialism.

Author: Karl Marx

We have, essentially, a worthless democracy.

Author: Aaron McGruder

There is no dignity in wickedness, whether in purple or rags; and hell is a democracy of devils, where all are equals.

Author: Herman Melville

Democracy is also a form of worship. It is the worship of Jackals by Jackasses.

Author: H. Mencken

Democracy is only a dream: it should be put in the same category as Arcadia, Santa Claus, and Heaven.

Author: H. Mencken

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

Author: H. Mencken

We should seek international support for our mutual objectives abroad, in promoting freedom, democracy, respect for human rights, and also the elimination of weapons of mass destruction.

Author: Robert Menendez

Democracy is hypocrisy without limitation.

Author: Iskander Mirza

Democracy in China is like Viagra; no such thing as free elections.

Author: George Montgomery

Democracy belongs to those who exercise it.

Author: Bill Moyers

Democracy is beautiful in theory; in practice it is a fallacy.

Author: Benito Mussolini

Once you don't vote your ideals... that has serious undermining affects. It erodes the moral basis of our democracy.

Author: Ralph Nader

Democracy and socialism are means to an end, not the end itself.

Author: Jawaharlal Nehru

Democracy is good. I say this because other systems are worse.

Author: Jawaharlal Nehru

Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.

Author: Reinhold Niebuhr

Democracy is finding proximate solutions to insoluble problems.

Author: Reinhold Niebuhr

We are losing the democracy that we're trying to sell in the Mideast and everywhere else right here in our own nation.

Author: Rosie O'Donnell

And that is my definition of democracy, the right to be in a minority and not be suppressed.

Author: Lee Oswald

It will take years to bring Iraq the democracy it deserves.

Author: Bill Owens

For us democracy is a question of human dignity. And human dignity is political freedom.

Author: Olof Palme

And one of the frustrating parts, but it's an inherent part of our democracy, is we have separation of powers.

Author: George Pataki

In democracy everyone has the right to be represented, even the jerks.

Author: Chris Patten

In a democracy everybody has a right to be represented, including the jerks.

Author: Chris Patten

One has the right to be wrong in a democracy.

Author: Claude Pepper

Television has made dictatorship impossible but democracy unbearable.

Author: Shimon Peres

Democracy functions best when we have an active citizenry.

Author: Rick Perry

Tyranny naturally arises out of democracy.

Author: Plato

Democracy passes into despotism.

Author: Plato

Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty.

Author: Plato

In nation after nation, democracy has taken the place of autocracy.

Author: John Polanyi

Nobody and nothing will stop Russia on the road to strengthening democracy and ensuring human rights and freedoms.

Author: Vladimir Putin

El Salvador is a democracy so it's not surprising that there are many voices to be heard here. Yet in my conversations with Salvadorans... I have heard a single voice.

Author: Dan Quayle