Best century & democracy Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“There is an old song which asserts 'the best things in life are free.' Not true! Utterly false! This was the tragic fallacy which brought on the decadence and collapse of the democracies of the twentieth century; those noble experiments failed because the people had been led to believe that they could simply vote for whatever they wanted...and get it without toil, without sweat, without tears. Nothing of value is free. Even the breath of life is purchased at birth only through gasping effort and pain.”

Source: Starship Troopers

“How do we get democracy at the international level? That's our problem. and it's essentially the same problem people faced in the 18th Century when they tried to get democracy nationally. Now we need it internationally.”

People Needs Problem Levels Democracy Century International 18th Century

Author:Susan George

“I have lived with my conscience and my own memories for over quarter of a century since the events of 1973. These are not easy reflections for me. But I am at peace with myself, and with the Chilean people, about what happened. I am clear in my mind that the return to Chile of true democracy, and from that the true freedom to which all individual people are entitled, could not have been achieved without the removal of the Marxist government.”

“Decades, if not centuries are normally required for people to acquire the necessary disciplines and habits. In Britain, the road [to democratic government] took seven centuries to traverse.”

People Ifs Government Democracy Century Habit Discipline Democratic Seven Decades Britain Acquire Democratic Government Traverse

Author:Jeane Kirkpatrick

“The twentieth century was marked by two broad trends: the regulation of capitalism and the deregulation of democracy. Both experiments overreached.”

Two Democracy Century Capitalism Experiments Broads Trends Regulation Twentieth Century Deregulation

Book:The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad (Revised Edition)

Source: The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad (Revised Edition)

“Social Democracy preached against capitalism for half a century. After the November revolution the Reds had the opportunity to direct capitalism into the proper paths: but nothing happened!”

Opportunity Social Half Democracy Path Happened Century Revolution Capitalism Direct November Half A Century Social Democracy

Author:Julius Streicher

“Our faith in democracy, personal freedoms and human 'rights', and the other comforting prescriptions of the humanist liberal credo stem from the supremacy of maritime over territorial power. Pragmatists may deplore this as crude determinism, as another vain attempt to construct a general theory of history. They should reflect on the sort of political philosophy and structures we might now adhere to had the Habsburgs, Bourbons, Bonaparte, Hitler, Stalin or his heirs prevailed in the titanic world struggles of the past four centuries.”

Source: Maritime Supremacy & the Opening of the Western Mind: Naval Campaigns that Shaped the Modern World

“Also, an area that interests me - and it will probably take years to state what I mean - is the period of the rise of democracy, with Tom Paine, which is around the turn of the 18th century into the 19th.”

Years Mean States Turns Interest Democracy Century Periods Areas Toms 18th Century Paine Tom Paine

Author:Fiona Shaw

“A father of the church said that property was theft, many centuries before Proudhon was born. Bourdaloue reaffirmed it. Montesquieu was the inventor of national workshops and of the theory that the state owed every man a living. Nay, was not the church herself the first organized democracy?”

Men Firsts Said States Father Born Church Democracy Century Theory Property Every Man Organized Theft Inventor Workshops Montesquieu

Book:Books and Libraries: Democracy, and Other Papers

Source: Books and Libraries: Democracy, and Other Papers

“The technologies for the alternative energy sources exists today. The economics are compelling. The public health is compelling. Why would we maintain a focus on a 17th-century technology, when there are 21st-century alternatives that are both necessary and available? And the answer is the subversion of democracy.”

Today Energy Answers Technology Democracy Focus Century Source Economics Available Alternatives Compelling 21st Century Public Health Energy Sources Subversion 17th Century Alternative Energy

Author:Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

“...and was disposed too often to idealize as a virtue that habit of mean subservience to wealth and social position which, after more than half a century of political democracy, is still the characteristic and odious vice of the Englishman.”

Mean Stills Political Social Wealth Half Virtue Democracy Century Position Habit Vices Characteristics Englishmen Half A Century Subservience

Book:Religion And The Rise Of Capitalism

Source: Religion And The Rise Of Capitalism

“Worldwide, the twentieth century has seen the rise of extraordinary concentrations of economic and political power - evoking the people as the source of power while simultaneously privatizing its most meaningful exercise. Democracy always seems to be at least slightly elusive under such conditions.”

People Seems Political Democracy Economic Conditions Century Source Exercise Extraordinary Meaningful Concentration Twentieth Century Elusive Political Power Most Meaningful

Author:Thomas L. Dumm

“I can think of few more worthy achievements than keeping a library alive and well for a century. As far as I am concerned, one of the absolute backbones of a free society and a democracy is the library offering access to a treasure house of information to all.”

Thinking Wells I Can House Democracy Alive Century Information Achievement Concerned Absolutes Library Worthy Access Treasure Offering Free Society Backbone

Author:Gillian Roberts

“Reformist kings can save their dynasties now by helping their countries move smoothly into democracy, or they will end their years in exile like the Russian aristocrats of a century earlier.”

Years Ends Country Helping Moving Democracy Century Kings Exile Dynasty

Author:Elliott Abrams

“The democratic ideal has always been related to a moderate level of inequality. I think one big reason why electoral democracy flourished in 19th century America better than 19th century Europe is because you had more equal distribution of wealth in America.”

“Through much of the last century, America's faith in freedom and democracy was a rock in a raging sea. Now it is a seed upon the wind, taking root in many nations.”

Lasts America Nations Democracy Sea Rocks Century Wind Roots Seeds Rage

Author:George W. Bush

“If you look at the early nineteenth century you see the idea that we educate children to be voters and to be participants in our popular democracy. And then at the turn of the century when more and more immigrants are coming into the schools, Americanization becomes a more explicit part of the agenda.”

Ifs Looks Children Ideas School Turns Democracy Century Immigrants Agendas Voters Educate Nineteenth Century Participants Explicit

Author:Dana Goldstein

“My links with [Mahatma] Gandhi now are very political links because I do not believe there is any other politics available to us in the late twentieth century, a period of a totalitarianism linked with the market. There is really no other way you can do politics and create freedom for people without the kinds of instruments he revived. Civil disobedience is a way to create permanent democracy, perennial democracy, a direct democracy.”

“I think he [Vaclav Havel] is one of the great figures of the 20th century. He is one of the people that was able to be a part of overthrowing a dictatorial system by talking to people and understanding what the elements of democracy really are and respect for each other and elevating.”

People Thinking Able Understanding Talking Democracy Century Figures Elements 20th Century Elevating

Author:Judy Woodruff

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