Democracy quotes
Aristotle 384-322 BC
Politics
Where some people are very wealthy and others have nothing, the result will be either extreme democracy or absolute oligarchy, or despotism will come from either of those excesses.
Atkinson Brooks 1894-1984
Once around the Sun
After each war there is a little less democracy to save.
Attlee Clement 1883-1967
Democracy means government by discussion, but it is only effective if you can stop people talking.
Brandeis Louis Dembitz 1856-1941
We can have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both.
Browning Robert 1812-1889
Aristophanes' Apology
But, thanks to wine-lees and democracy,
We've still our stage where truth calls spade a spade!
Brzezinski Zbigniew 1928
Foreign Affairs
Russia can be an empire or a democracy, but it cannot be both.
Bullock Lord
Democracy is not about giving speeches; it is about making commitees work.
Burke Edmund 1729-1797
Reflections on the Revolution in France
A perfect democracy is therefore the most shameless thing in the world.
Bush Barbara 1925
Good education is the essential foundation of a strong democracy.
Chesterton G.K. 1874-1936
Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated.
Churchill Sir Winston 1874-1965
It has been said that Democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.
Cioran E.M.
Democracy is a festival of mediocrity.
Conant James Bryant 1898-1978
Democracy is a small hard core of common agreement, surrounded by a rich variety of individual differences.
Forster E.M. 1879-1970
Two cheers for Democracy „What I Believe"
So Two cheers for Democracy: one because it admits variety and two because it permits criticism.
Fosdick Harry Emerson 1878-1969
Democracy is based upon the conviction that there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people.
Judd Walter H.
People often say that, in a democracy, decisions are made by a majority of the people. Of course, that is not true. Decisions are made by a majority of those who make themselves heard and who vote-a very different thing.
Lenin 1870-1924
State and Revolutin
Democracy is not identical with majority rule.
Democracy is a State which recognizes the subjection of the minority to the majority, that is, an organization for the systematic use of force by one class against the other, by one part of the population against another.
Lincoln Abraham 1809-1865
As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master.
This expresses my idea of democracy.
Lippmann Walter 1899-1974
In a democracy, the opposition is not only tolerated as constitutional, but must be maintained because it is indispensable.
Macaulay Baron (Thomas Babington) 1800-1859
History of England
Thus our democracy was, from an early period, the most aristocratic, and our aristocracy the most democratic in the world.
Mahbubani Kishore
To have good Government you often need less, not more, democracy.
Mencken H.L. 1880-1956
Under democracy, one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule - and both commonly succeed, and are right.
Mencken H.L. 1880-1956
A Little Book in C major
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.
Nehru Jawaharlal 1889-1964
„Basic Approach"
Democracy and socialism are means to an end, not the end itself.
Nehru Jawarlal 1889-1964
Democracy is good. I say because other systems are worse.
Niebuhr Reinhold 1892-1971
Children of Light and Children of Darkness
Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.
Plato 429-347 BC
Republic
Democracy passes into despotism.
Rogow Arnold A.
Ultimately politics in a democracy reflects values much more than it shapes them.
Roosevelt Franklin D. 1882-1945
„Fireside Chat"
We have the men - the skill - the wealth - and above all, the will ... We must be the great arsenal of democracy.
Shaw George Bernard 1856-1950
Man and Superman „Maxims: Democracy"
Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.
Stoppard Tom 1937-
Jumpers
It's not the voting that's democracy, it's the counting.
Strunsky Simeon 1879-1948
If you want to understand democracy, spend less time in the library with Plato, and more time in the buses with people.
Trudeau Pierre Elliott 1919-
The democracy which embodies and guarantees our freedom is not powerless, passive or blind, nor is it in retreat. It has no intention of giving way to the savage
fantasies of its adversaries. It is not prepared to give advance blessing to its own destruction.
Truman Harry S. 1884-1972
Democracy is based on the conviction that man has the moral and intellectual capacity, as well as the inalienable right, to govern himself with reason and justice.
White E.B. 1899-1985
Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.
Wilde Oscar 1854-1900
Sebastian Melmoth „The Soul of Man ..."
Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.
Wilson Woodrow 1856-1924
It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance.
But the right is more precious that peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts - for democracy.
Wilson Woodrow 1856-1924
The world must be made safe for democracy
Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty.
Young Michael 1915-
The Rise of the Meritocracy
Today we frankly recognize that democracy can be no more than aspiration, and have rule not so much by the people as by the cleverest people; not an aristocracy of birth, not a plutocracy of wealth, but a true meritocracy of talent.
