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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Democracy is a system where people are counted not weighed.

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

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

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.

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.

Democracy is the road to socialism.

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

What a liberal really wants is to bring about change that will not in any way endanger his position.

Of what good is democracy if it is not for the poor?

Freedom of the press is not just important to democracy, it is democracy.

The main problem in any democracy is that crowd-pleasers are generally brainless swine who can go out on a stage & whup their supporters into an orgiastic frenzy - then go back to the office & sell every one of the poor bastards down the tube for a nickel apiece. Probably the rarest form of life in American politics is the man who can turn on a crowd & still keep his head straight - assuming it was straight in the first place.

In Europe democracy is a falsehood. I do not know where it will end, but it cannot end in a quiet old age.

We women of America tell you that America is not a democracy. Twenty million women are denied the right to vote.

Freedom of conscience, of education, of speech, of assembly are among the very fundamentals of democracy and all of them would be nullified should freedom of the press ever be successfully challenged.

Every single empire in its official discourse has said that it is not like all the others, that its circumstances are special, that it has a mission to enlighten, civilize, bring order and democracy, and that it uses force only as a last resort. And, sadder still, there always is a chorus of willing intellectuals to say calming words about benign or altruistic empires.

The best defense against usurpatory government is an assertive citizenry.

Today, I am an inquisitor. I shall not sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution.

In our so-called democracy we are accustomed to give the majority what they want rather than educate them to understand what is best for them.

The state is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else.

Democracy cannot survive overpopulation. Human dignity cannot survive it. Convenience and decency cannot survive it. As you put more and more people into the world, the value of life not only declines, but it disappears. It doesn't matter if someone dies.

You have fewer rights because you are a minority. Absolutely, that’s how democracy works.

Democracy is not compatible with financial oligarchy.

Democracy is corrupted not only when the spirit of equality is corrupted, but likewise when they fall into a spirit of extreme equality.

America has no functioning democracy at this moment.

You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.

Freedom is not an end. Freedom is a beginning.

If there was one decision I would overrule, it would be Citizens United. I think the notion that we have all the democracy that money can buy strays so far from what our democracy is supposed to be.

Communism needs democracy like the human body needs oxygen.

Democracy and liberty are not the same. Democracy is little more than mob rule, while liberty refers to the sovereignty of the individual.

Those who deplore our militants, who exhort patience in the name of a false peace, are in fact supporting segregation and exploitation. They would have social peace at the expense of social and racial justice. They are more concerned with easing racial tension than enforcing racial democracy.

We are on the precipice of being so ignorant that our democracy is threatened.

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