Democracy Quotes

A free America... means just this: individual freedom for all, rich or poor, or else this system of government we call democracy is only an expedient to enslave man to the machine and make him like it.

With the end of the cold war, all the 'isms' of the 20th century - Fascism, Nazism, Communism and the evil of apartheid-ism - have failed. Except one. Only democracy has shown itself true the help of all mankind.

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

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.

Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.

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

The second 'Postal Service' album is threatening to become the 'Chinese Democracy' of indie rock. It will come out eventually, or maybe it won't.

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

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

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

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

Jordan has to show the Arab world that there's another way of doing things. We're a monarchy, yes, but if we can show democracy that leads to a two-, three-, four-party system - left, right and center - in a couple of years' time, then the Muslim Brotherhood will no longer be something to contend with.

For about ten years now, the struggle for democracy and the respect of human rights has been in the focus point - if not a commodity - of political groups aiming to rise to power.

My own ideals for the university are those of a genuine democracy and serious scholarship. These two, indeed, seem to go together.

As the world's finest democracy, we do not do guillotines. But there are other less bloody rituals of humiliation, designed to reassure the populace that order is restored, the Republic cleansed.

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.

Israel was born under the British mandate. We learned from the British what democracy means, and how it behaves in a time of danger, war and terror. We thank Britain for introducing freedom and respect of human rights both in normal and demanding circumstances.

But democracy isn't a state of perfection. It has to be improved, and that means constant vigilance.

People who want to understand democracy should spend less time in the library with Aristotle and more time on the buses and in the subway.

But the Western countries that link their partnership with the poorest countries with respect for democracy also have to consider that they have obligations towards these countries.

But our energy woes are in many ways the result of classic market failures that can only be addressed through collective action, and government is the vehicle for collective action in a democracy.

It has been well over half a century and I'm glad to say we have taken the right path from authoritarianism to democracy and this is a road of no return.

The advanced levels which the democratic world has attained at the end of lengthy processes may have created the perception in the region that democracy is a distant concept; this perception can be addressed.

Democracy is the form of government that gives every man the right to be his own oppressor.

It is true you cannot eat freedom and you cannot power machinery with democracy. But then neither can political prisoners turn on the light in the cells of a dictatorship.

Concentration of executive power, unless it's very temporary and for specific circumstances, let's say fighting world war two, it's an assault on democracy.

Television has made dictatorship impossible but democracy unbearable.

Capitalism is an evil, and you cannot regulate evil. You have to eliminate it and replace it with something that is good for all people and that something is democracy.

A functioning, robust democracy requires a healthy educated, participatory followership, and an educated, morally grounded leadership.

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