Quotes about Democracy
Democracy forever teases us with the contrast between its ideals and its realities, between its heroic possibilities and its sorry achievements.
... the 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance The growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy. Australian social scientist, quoted by Noam Chomsky in World Orders Old and New
The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colours breaking through.
If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost.
That's free enterprise, friends freedom to gamble, freedom to lose. And the great thing -- the truly democratic thing about it -- is that you don't even have to be a player to lose.
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
There is one safeguard known generally to the wise, which is an advantage and security to all, but especially to democracies as against despots. What is it? Distrust.
It is not the fact of liberty but the way in which liberty is exercised that ultimately determines whether liberty itself survives.
The only force that can overcome an idea and a faith is another and better idea and faith, positively and fearlessly upheld.
Of all forms of government and society, those of free men and women are in many respects the most brittle. They give the fullest freedom for activities of private persons and groups who often identify their own interests, essentially selfish, with the general welfare.
Democracy is itself, a religious faith. For some it comes close to being the only formal religion they have.
Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.
The two greatest obstacles to democracy in the United States are, first, the widespread delusion among the poor that we have a democracy, and second, the chronic terror among the rich, lest we get it. [1941]
The only way to make sure people you agree with can speak is to support the rights of people you don't agree with.
As long as the differences and diversities of mankind exist, democracy must allow for compromise, for accommodation, and for the recognition of differences.
When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong. The minority are right.
In 1929 the wise, far-seeing electors of my native Hereford sent me to Westminster and, two years later, the lousy bastards kicked me out.
Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.
As Mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protections of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality.
Democracy is only a dream it should be put in the same category as Arcadia, Santa Claus, and Heaven.
As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron. The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920
A good politician under democracy is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.
Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country. quote verified at snopes.com
Civilization is the process in which one gradually increases the number of people included in the term 'we' or 'us' and at the same time decreases those labeled 'you' or 'them' until that category has no one left in it.
The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.
Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions - it only guarantees equality of opportunity.
In a democracy, dissent is an act of faith.
We have learned to say that the good must be extended to all of society before it can be held secure by any one person or any one class. But we have not yet learned to add to that statement, that unless all [people] and all classes contribute to a good, we cannot even be sure that it is worth having.
Voting is one of the few things where boycotting in protest clearly makes the problem worse rather than better.
The price of the democratic way of life is a growing appreciation of people's differences, not merely as tolerable, but as the essence of a rich and rewarding human experience.
In politics, an organized minority is a political majority.
The aim of education is to enable individuals to continue their education ... (and) the object and reward of learning is continued capacity for growth. Now this idea cannot be applied to all the members of a society except where intercourse of man with man is mutual, and except where there is adequate provision for the reconstruction of social habits and institutions by means of wide stimulation arising from equitably distributed interests. And this means a democratic society.
We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.
The citizen can bring our political and governmental institutions back to life, make them responsive and accountable, and keep them honest. No one else can.
Democracy encourages the majority to decide things about which the majority is ignorant.
Democracy is a process by which the people are free to choose the man who will get the blame.
We adore titles and heredities in our hearts and ridicule them with our mouths. This is our democratic privilege.
Everybody's for democracy in principle. It's only in practice that the thing gives rise to stiff objections.
To safeguard democracy the people must have a keen sense of independence, self-respect, and their oneness.
The spirit of democracy cannot be imposed from without. It has to come from within.
In true democracy every man and women is taught to think for himself or herself.
The spirit of democracy cannot be established in the midst of terrorism, whether governmental or popular.
When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall -- think of it, ALWAYS.
The thing about democracy, beloveds, is that it is not neat, orderly, or quiet. It requires a certain relish for confusion.
The most effective way to restrict democracy is to transfer decision-making from the public arena to unaccountable institutions kings and princes, priestly castes, military juntas, party dictatorships, or modern corporations.
There are no magic answers, no miraculous methods to overcome the problems we face, just the familiar ones honest search for understanding, education, organization, action that raises the cost of state violence for its perpetrators or that lays the basis for institutional change -- and the kind of commitment that will persist despite the temptations of disillusionment, despite many failures and only limited successes, inspired by the hope of a brighter future."
In this possibly terminal phase of human existence, democracy and freedom are more than just ideals to be valued - they may be essential to survival.
Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.
An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.
Abraham Lincoln did not go to Gettysburg having commissioned a poll to find out what would sell in Gettysburg. There were no people with percentages for him, cautioning him about this group or that group or what they found in exit polls a year earlier. When will we have the courage of Lincoln?
The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.
Democracy, as has been said of Christianity, has never really been tried.
Democracy means not "I am as good as you are" but "You are as good as I am."
I know of no safe repository of the ultimate power of society but people. And if we think them not enlightened enough, the remedy is not to take the power from them, but to inform them by education.
A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.
Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.
I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.
The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.
[C]reative ability and personal responsibility are strongest when the mind is free from supernatural belief and operates in an atmosphere of freedom and democracy.
Individual commitment to a group effort -- that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.
So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men.
Did you, too, O friend, suppose democracy was only for elections, for politics, and for a party name? I say democracy is only of use there that it may pass on and come to its flower and fruit in manners, in the highest forms of interaction between [people], and their beliefs -- in religion, literature, colleges and schools -- democracy in all public and private life....
The purpose of democracy -- supplanting old belief in the necessary absoluteness of establish'd dynastic rulership, temporal, ecclesiastical, and scholastic, as furnishing the only security against chaos, crime, and ignorance -- is, through many transmigrations, and amid endless ridicules, arguments, and ostensible failures, This entry continued ...
Governments exist to protect the rights of minorities. The loved and the rich need no protection they have many friends and few enemies.
America's support for human rights and democracy is our noblest export to the world.
In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.
Anyone who proposes to do good must not expect people to roll stones out of his way, but must accept his lot calmly if they even roll a few more upon it.
If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.
Love the moment. Flowers grow out of dark moments. Therefore, each moment is vital. It affects the whole. Life is a succession of such moments and to live each, is to succeed.
Bart Giamatti did not grow up (as he had dreamed) to play second base for the Red Sox. He became a professor at Yale, and then, in time . . . president of the National Baseball League. He never lost his love for the Boston Red Sox. It was as a Red Sox fan, he later realized that human beings are fallen, and that life is filled with disappointment. The path to comprehending Calvinism in modern America, he decided, begins at Fenway Park.
Affliction is more apt to suffocate the imagination than to stimulate it.
As only New Yorkers know, if you can get through the twilight, you'll live through the night.
Friendship is a plant of slow growth and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.
Difficulties increase the nearer we get to the goal.
Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.
Mishaps are like knives, that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or the handle.
Being human is itself difficult, and therefore all kinds of settlements (except dream cities) have problems.
Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.
But the fruit that can fall without shaking Indeed is too mellow for me.
The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.
The mystery of existence is the connection between our faults and our misfortunes.
December is the toughest month of the year. Others are July, January, September, Aprll, November, May, March, June, October, August, and February.
To fly, we have to have resistance.
It is worthwhile to live and fight courageously for sacred ideals.
For one human being to love another that is perhaps the most difficult of our tasks; the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.
Can anybody remember when the times were not hard and money not scarce?
Can anybody remember when the times were not hard and money not scarce?
Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.
Learn wisdom from the ways of a seedling. A seedling which is never hardened off through stressful situations will never become a strong productive plant.
If I were personally to define religion I would say that it is a bandage that man has invented to protect a soul made bloody by circumstance.
We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed.
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.
Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict.
The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
Democracy forever teases us with the contrast between its ideals and its realities, between its heroic possibilities and its sorry achievements.
... the 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance The growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy. Australian social scientist, quoted by Noam Chomsky in World Orders Old and New
The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colours breaking through.
If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost.
That's free enterprise, friends freedom to gamble, freedom to lose. And the great thing -- the truly democratic thing about it -- is that you don't even have to be a player to lose.
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
There is one safeguard known generally to the wise, which is an advantage and security to all, but especially to democracies as against despots. What is it? Distrust.
It is not the fact of liberty but the way in which liberty is exercised that ultimately determines whether liberty itself survives.
The only force that can overcome an idea and a faith is another and better idea and faith, positively and fearlessly upheld.
Of all forms of government and society, those of free men and women are in many respects the most brittle. They give the fullest freedom for activities of private persons and groups who often identify their own interests, essentially selfish, with the general welfare.
Democracy is itself, a religious faith. For some it comes close to being the only formal religion they have.
Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.
The two greatest obstacles to democracy in the United States are, first, the widespread delusion among the poor that we have a democracy, and second, the chronic terror among the rich, lest we get it. [1941]
The only way to make sure people you agree with can speak is to support the rights of people you don't agree with.
As long as the differences and diversities of mankind exist, democracy must allow for compromise, for accommodation, and for the recognition of differences.
When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong. The minority are right.
In 1929 the wise, far-seeing electors of my native Hereford sent me to Westminster and, two years later, the lousy bastards kicked me out.
Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.
As Mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protections of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality.
Democracy is only a dream it should be put in the same category as Arcadia, Santa Claus, and Heaven.
As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron. The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920
A good politician under democracy is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.
Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country. quote verified at snopes.com
Civilization is the process in which one gradually increases the number of people included in the term 'we' or 'us' and at the same time decreases those labeled 'you' or 'them' until that category has no one left in it.
The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.
Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions - it only guarantees equality of opportunity.
In a democracy, dissent is an act of faith.
We have learned to say that the good must be extended to all of society before it can be held secure by any one person or any one class. But we have not yet learned to add to that statement, that unless all [people] and all classes contribute to a good, we cannot even be sure that it is worth having.
Voting is one of the few things where boycotting in protest clearly makes the problem worse rather than better.
The price of the democratic way of life is a growing appreciation of people's differences, not merely as tolerable, but as the essence of a rich and rewarding human experience.
In politics, an organized minority is a political majority.
The aim of education is to enable individuals to continue their education ... (and) the object and reward of learning is continued capacity for growth. Now this idea cannot be applied to all the members of a society except where intercourse of man with man is mutual, and except where there is adequate provision for the reconstruction of social habits and institutions by means of wide stimulation arising from equitably distributed interests. And this means a democratic society.
We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.
The citizen can bring our political and governmental institutions back to life, make them responsive and accountable, and keep them honest. No one else can.
Democracy encourages the majority to decide things about which the majority is ignorant.
Democracy is a process by which the people are free to choose the man who will get the blame.
We adore titles and heredities in our hearts and ridicule them with our mouths. This is our democratic privilege.
Everybody's for democracy in principle. It's only in practice that the thing gives rise to stiff objections.
To safeguard democracy the people must have a keen sense of independence, self-respect, and their oneness.
The spirit of democracy cannot be imposed from without. It has to come from within.
In true democracy every man and women is taught to think for himself or herself.
The spirit of democracy cannot be established in the midst of terrorism, whether governmental or popular.
When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall -- think of it, ALWAYS.
The thing about democracy, beloveds, is that it is not neat, orderly, or quiet. It requires a certain relish for confusion.
The most effective way to restrict democracy is to transfer decision-making from the public arena to unaccountable institutions kings and princes, priestly castes, military juntas, party dictatorships, or modern corporations.
There are no magic answers, no miraculous methods to overcome the problems we face, just the familiar ones honest search for understanding, education, organization, action that raises the cost of state violence for its perpetrators or that lays the basis for institutional change -- and the kind of commitment that will persist despite the temptations of disillusionment, despite many failures and only limited successes, inspired by the hope of a brighter future.\
In this possibly terminal phase of human existence, democracy and freedom are more than just ideals to be valued - they may be essential to survival.
Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.
An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.
Abraham Lincoln did not go to Gettysburg having commissioned a poll to find out what would sell in Gettysburg. There were no people with percentages for him, cautioning him about this group or that group or what they found in exit polls a year earlier. When will we have the courage of Lincoln?
The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.
Democracy, as has been said of Christianity, has never really been tried.
Democracy means not "I am as good as you are" but "You are as good as I am.\
I know of no safe repository of the ultimate power of society but people. And if we think them not enlightened enough, the remedy is not to take the power from them, but to inform them by education.
A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.
Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.
I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.
The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.
[C]reative ability and personal responsibility are strongest when the mind is free from supernatural belief and operates in an atmosphere of freedom and democracy.
Individual commitment to a group effort -- that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.
So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men.
Did you, too, O friend, suppose democracy was only for elections, for politics, and for a party name? I say democracy is only of use there that it may pass on and come to its flower and fruit in manners, in the highest forms of interaction between [people], and their beliefs -- in religion, literature, colleges and schools -- democracy in all public and private life....
The purpose of democracy -- supplanting old belief in the necessary absoluteness of establish'd dynastic rulership, temporal, ecclesiastical, and scholastic, as furnishing the only security against chaos, crime, and ignorance -- is, through many transmigrations, and amid endless ridicules, arguments, and ostensible failures, This entry continued ...
Governments exist to protect the rights of minorities. The loved and the rich need no protection they have many friends and few enemies.
America's support for human rights and democracy is our noblest export to the world.
In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.
Anyone who proposes to do good must not expect people to roll stones out of his way, but must accept his lot calmly if they even roll a few more upon it.
If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.
Love the moment. Flowers grow out of dark moments. Therefore, each moment is vital. It affects the whole. Life is a succession of such moments and to live each, is to succeed.
Bart Giamatti did not grow up (as he had dreamed) to play second base for the Red Sox. He became a professor at Yale, and then, in time . . . president of the National Baseball League. He never lost his love for the Boston Red Sox. It was as a Red Sox fan, he later realized that human beings are fallen, and that life is filled with disappointment. The path to comprehending Calvinism in modern America, he decided, begins at Fenway Park.
Affliction is more apt to suffocate the imagination than to stimulate it.
As only New Yorkers know, if you can get through the twilight, you'll live through the night.
Friendship is a plant of slow growth and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.
Difficulties increase the nearer we get to the goal.
Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.
Mishaps are like knives, that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or the handle.
Being human is itself difficult, and therefore all kinds of settlements (except dream cities) have problems.
Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.
But the fruit that can fall without shaking Indeed is too mellow for me.
The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.
The mystery of existence is the connection between our faults and our misfortunes.
December is the toughest month of the year. Others are July, January, September, Aprll, November, May, March, June, October, August, and February.
To fly, we have to have resistance.
It is worthwhile to live and fight courageously for sacred ideals.
For one human being to love another that is perhaps the most difficult of our tasks; the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.
Can anybody remember when the times were not hard and money not scarce?
Can anybody remember when the times were not hard and money not scarce?
Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.
Learn wisdom from the ways of a seedling. A seedling which is never hardened off through stressful situations will never become a strong productive plant.
If I were personally to define religion I would say that it is a bandage that man has invented to protect a soul made bloody by circumstance.
We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed.
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.
Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict.
The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.