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Democracies Have Quotes

Browse 228 quotes about Democracies Have.

Democracies Have Quotes

“Taiwan's democracy has grown very fast and we enjoy a certain degree of freedom, as other developed democracies like the United States.”

States Certain Enjoy United United States Democracy Degrees Democracies Have Taiwan

Author:Annette Lu

“The word democracy has no meaning. Duty has gone. Only rights remain.”

Gone Democracy Rights Duty Democracies Have

Author:Fiona Shaw

“The issuing power [of money] should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.”

“Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.”

Men Political Politics Freedom Democracy Philosophical Property Rulers Democracies Have Voting And Democracy Democracy Freedom

Book:Aristotle: The Politics and the Constitution of Athens

Source: Aristotle: The Politics and the Constitution of Athens

“In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme.”

Politics Poor Power Democracy Rich Majority Supreme Democracies Have

Author:Aristotle

“Democracy has not failed; the intelligence of the race has failed before the problems the race has raised”

Problem Race Democracy Raised Intelligence Democracies Have

Author:Robert M. Hutchins

“Democracy has no convictions for which people would be willing to stake their lives.”

People Would Be Democracy Military Willing Conviction Stakes World War 2 Democracies Have

Author:Ernst Hanfstaengl

“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 government to the utmost.”

Source: Politics

“The hegemony of finance and the banks has produced the indebted. Control over information and communication networks has created the mediatized. The security regime and the generalized state of exception have constructed a figure prey to fear and yearning for protection—the securitized. And the corruption of democracy has forged a strange, depoliticized figure, the represented. These subjective figures constitute the social terrain on which—and against which—movements of resistance and rebellion must act.”

“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?”

“Although Israel was founded based on the historic Jewish homeland and the need to have a Jewish homeland, Israeli democracy has been premised on everybody in the country being treated equally and fairly. And I think that that is what's best about Israeli democracy.”

Thinking Needs Has Beens Country Democracy Israel Treated Historic Israeli Homeland Democracies Have

Author:Barack Obama

“Our democracy has been around far longer than European democracy.”

Has Beens Democracy Democracies Have

Author:Hillary Clinton

“A spurious democracy has influenced both our research methods (I am sometimes tempted to define "validity" as part of the context of an experiment demanding so little in the way of esoteric gift that any number can play at it, provided they have taken a certain number of courses) and our research subjects (it would be deemed snobbish to investigate only the best people).”

Source: Selected essays from Individualism reconsidered

“Here is the crisis of the times as I see it: We talk about problems, issues, policies, but we don't talk about what democracy means - what it bestows on us - the revolutionary idea that it isn't just about the means of governance but the means of dignifying people so they become fully free to claim their moral and political agency.”

People Mean Ideas Problem Political Moral Democracy Issues Policy Claims Crisis Revolutionary Agency Governance Democracies Have Revolutionary Ideas

Author:Bill Moyers

“A total work of art is only possible in the context of the whole of society. Everyone will be a necessary co-creator of a social architecture, and, so long as anyone cannot participate, the ideal form of democracy has not been reached. Whether people are artists, assemblers of machines or nurses, it is a matter of participating in the whole.”

Long Art Matter Whole Form Artist Social Democracy Art Is Ideals Machines Creator Architecture Works Of Art Nurse Participating Democracies Have

Author:Joseph Beuys

“But now well democracy has shown us that what is evil are the grosses têtes, the big heads, all big heads are greedy for money and power, they are ambitious that is the reason they are big heads and so they are at the head of the government and the result is misery for the people. They talk about cutting off the heads of the grosses têtes but now we know that there will be other grosses têtes and the will be all the same.”

People Knows Wells Reason Bigs Government Evil Results Democracy Cutting Misery Ambitious Greedy Democracies Have Money And Power Cutting Off Big Heads

Author:Gertrude Stein

“When free discussion is denied, hardening of the arteries of democracy has set in, free institutions are but a lifeless form, and the death of the republic is at hand.”

Hands Form Democracy Institutions Discussion Republic Denied Democracies Have Lifeless Arteries

Author:William Randolph Hearst

“Lincoln, they used to talk about him almost as bad as they talk about me. So democracy has never been for the faint of heart.”

Heart Used Democracy Democracies Have Faint Of Heart

Author:Barack Obama

“Democracy! Bah! When I hear that I reach for my feather boa!”

Political Literature Democracy Feathers Democracies Have Voting And Democracy

Author:Allen Ginsberg

“Democracy has turned out to be not majority rule but rule by well-organized and well-connected minority groups who steal from the majority.”

Wells Democracy Groups Majority Connected Stealing Organized Minorities Democracies Have Majority Rule Minority Groups

Author:Llewellyn Rockwell

“Once the philosophical foundation of democracy has collapsed, the statement that dictatorship is bad is rationally valid only for those who are not its beneficiaries, and there is no theoretical obstacle to the transformation of this statement into its opposite.”

Democracy Opposites Transformation Philosophical Foundation Obstacles Statements Dictatorship Theoretical Democracies Have Beneficiaries

Book:Eclipse of Reason

Source: Eclipse of Reason

“Down to the present day the luminous image of democracy has often served as a pretext for the most undemocratic actions.”

Action Democracy Luminous Present Day Democracies Have Pretext

Book:Propaganda and the Ethics of Persuasion

Source: Propaganda and the Ethics of Persuasion

“The dream of democracy has long been enshrined in the hearts of the Egyptian people. It only needed awakening.”

People Heart Long Dream Democracy Needed Awakening Democracies Have Egyptian

Author:Mohamed ElBaradei

“Democracy has two excesses to avoid: the spirit of inequality, which leads to an aristocracy, or to the government of a single individual; and the spirit of extreme equality, which conducts it to despotism, as the despotism of a single individual finishes by conquest.”

Two Wisdom Government Spirit Politics Individual Economy Democracy Extremes Inequality Liberalism Excess Conquest Aristocracy Despotism Democracies Have

Author:Baron de Montesquieu

“Those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”

Source: God in the Dock

“The job of a citizen is to keep his mouth open.”

Jobs House Freedom Democracy Citizens Mouths Citizenship Democracies Have World Citizen

Author:Gunter Grass

“Democracy has now become corrupted by the nature of the funders.”

Democracy Democracies Have

Author:George Hamilton

“Democracy has become, unless I mistake, a kind of test or shibboleth, by which we try men and measures; and this is the same as to say that it is merely a word which is powerful with us, and not the wide and true notion of what the word means. But we must define the true import of words, and not be slaves to syllables; for democracy in form is not necessarily people-power in fact, but power perhaps of a few, who cajole the many and so lead and use the people for their own ends.”

People Men Trying Kind Mean Ends Facts Use Form Powerful Mistake Democracy Tests Slave Notion Wide Democracies Have Imports Syllables Be A Slave Try Me

Author:James Vila Blake

“Democracy has at least one merit, namely that a Member of Parliament cannot be stupider than his constituents, for the more stupid he is, the more stupid they were to elect him.”

Democracy Stupid Members Merit Parliament Democracies Have Constituents Members Of Parliament

Book:Autobiography

Source: Autobiography

“Majorities can be wrong, majorities can overrule rights of minorities. If majorities ruled, we could still have slavery. 80% of the population once enslaved 20% of the population. While run by majority rule that is ok. That is very flawed notion of what democracy is. Democracy has to take into account several things - proportionate requirements of people, not just needs of the majority, but also needs of the minority. Majority, especially in societies where the media manipulates public opinion, can be totally wrong and evil. People have to act according to conscience and not by majority vote.”

“All deductions having been made, democracy has done less harm, and more good, than any other form of government. It gave to human existence a zest and camaraderie that outweighed its pitfalls and defects. It gave to thought and science and enterprise the freedom essential to their operation and growth. It broke down the walls of privilege and class, and in each generation it raised up ability from every rank and place.”

Source: The Lessons of History

“Democracy has always been in crisis: democracy is all about practicing the art of bearable dissatisfaction. In democratic societies, people often complain about their leaders and their institutions. The gap between the ideal democracy and the existing one cannot be bridged.”

People Art Leader Democracy Ideals Crisis Institutions Democratic Complaining Gaps Dissatisfaction Democracies Have Democratic Society Bearable

Author:Ivan Krastev

“It took six weeks of debate in the Senate to get the Arms Embargo Law repealed--and we face other delays during the present session because most of the Members of the Congress are thinking in terms of next Autumn's election. However, that is one of the prices that we who live in democracies have to pay. It is, however, worth paying, if all of us can avoid the type of government under which the unfortunate population of Germany and Russia must exist.”

“Democracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they are the powers that ought to be.”

Political Democracy Ought Asking Witty Voting Persist Democracies Have Election Day Voting And Democracy

Author:Sydney J. Harris

“Naturally the common people don't want war. . . but after all it is the leaders of a country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along. . .”

“It is a law of governance that democracies have to spend themselves dizzy. Citizens of democracies can, after all, tell their government to give them things.”

Giving Government Law Democracy Citizens Governance Democracies Have Dizzy National Debt

Book:Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government

Source: Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government

“Constitutional democracy has created astonishing and apparently irreversible social progress. All we're interested in is talking about when government doesn't work.”

Government Social Talking Democracy Progress Astonishing Democracies Have Social Progress Irreversible

Author:Tony Kushner

“Individuals have conquered themselves. Nations and large bodies of men, never.”

Men Body Individual Nations Democracies Have

Book:The Political Writings of John Adams

Source: The Political Writings of John Adams

“Democracy has many enemies, and the terrorist is only one of them.”

Enemy Democracy Terrorist Democracies Have

Author:Paul Johnson

“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy. It is not true, in fact, and nowhere appears in history. Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of simple government, and when unchecked, produce the same effects of fraud, violence, and cruelty.”

“I do not say that democracy has been more pernicious on the whole, and in the long run, than monarchy or aristocracy. Democracy has never been and never can be so durable as aristocracy or monarchy; but while it lasts, it is more bloody than either.”

Long Has Beens Whole Running Lasts Democracy Long Runs Bloody Monarchy Aristocracy Democracies Have Pernicious

Book:The Political Writings of John Adams

Source: The Political Writings of John Adams

“Democracy, by its very nature, can't be imposed on people. Democracy has to be the people deciding for themselves.”

People Democracy Democracies Have

Author:George Soros

“We in the United States are very often - since we are a democracy and we have national interests, we've often made the mistake that a democracy has to adopt America's interests, and that is a contradiction because a democracy basically is people deciding what their interests are.”

People Made States America Interest United Mistake United States Democracy Contradiction Democracies Have National Interests

Author:George Soros

“Advocating democracy has, by other people, often been taken as a form of imperialism, and not without some justification. So the important thing in a democracy is that it doesn't necessarily have to agree with what America's interests are, and it doesn't necessarily have to be serving American interests.”

People Important America Form Interest Democracy Taken Agree Important Things Serving Justification Imperialism Democracies Have Advocating

Author:George Soros

“What other developed democracy has such a ridiculous and squalid history of intolerance? From the imprisonment and roasting of heretics, witches and poachers, to the censorship of literature, art and television: from St Alban through Wilde, Joyce and Lawrence I think we can point with pride to as grim a catalogue of intemperate, bigoted repression as any nation on earth.”

“The perception of the West as mostly a "knight of democracy" has been replaced with the disappointed belief that pragmatism, often cynical and selfish, lies at the core of Western policies. For many Russians it was a grave disillusion, a crushing of ideals.”

Has Beens Lying Belief Democracy Policy Perception Ideals West Western Selfish Core Graves Crush Disappointed Cynical Replaced Knights Democracies Have Pragmatism Disillusion

Author:Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

“American democracy has been hacked.”

Has Beens Democracy Democracies Have American Democracy Hacked

Book:An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power: Your Action Handbook to Learn the Science, Find Your Voice, and Help Solve the Climate Crisis

Source: An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power: Your Action Handbook to Learn the Science, Find Your Voice, and Help Solve the Climate Crisis

“A well-functioning democracy has a culture of free speech, not simply legal protection of free speech. It encourages independence of mind. It imparts a willingness to challenge prevailing opinion through both words and deeds. Equally important, it encourages a certain set of attitudes in listeners, one that gives a respectful hearing to those who do not embrace the conventional wisdom. In a culture of free speech, the attitude of listeners is no less important than that of speakers.”

“Hence it is that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths. Theoretic politicians, who have patronized this species of government, have erroneously supposed that by reducing mankind to a perfect equality in their political rights, they would, at the same time, be perfectly equalized and assimilated in their possessions, their opinions, and their passions.”

Source: The Fœderalist: A Collection of Essays, Written in Favor of the New Constitution, as Agreed Upon by the Fœderal Convention, September 17, 1787. Reprinted from the Original Text. With an Historical Introduction and Notes

“Sixty years of Western nations excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make us safe because in the long run stability cannot be purchased at the expense of liberty. ... The global wave of democracy has barely reached the Arab states. For too long, many people in that region have been victims and subjects. They deserve to be active citizens.”