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Democracy Quotes

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Democracy Quotes

“One cannot have a trade union or a democratic election without freedom of speech, freedom of association and assembly. Without a democratic election, whereby people choose and remove their rulers, there is no method of securing human rights against the state. No democracy without human rights, no human rights without democracy, and no trade union rights without either. That is our belief; that is our creed.”

“You are never wrong when you have voted because you've acted in accordance with your conscience and your beliefs, and you've exercised your democratic right, which is, you know, perfectly legitimate in our democracies.”

Knows Belief Democracy Conscience Democratic

Author:Christine Lagarde

“President Reagan fueled the spirit of America. His smile, his optimism, his total belief in the ultimate triumph of democracy and freedom, and his willingness to act on that belief, helped end the Cold War and usher in a new and brighter phase of history.”

War Ends America Spirit Belief President Democracy Cold Optimism Ultimate Triumph Willingness Phases Cold War Brighter His Smile President Reagan

Author:Colin Powell

“A fanatical belief in democracy makes democratic institutions impossible.”

Belief Democracy Impossible Institutions Democratic

Book:Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68

Source: Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68

“Democracy means the belief that humanistic culture should prevail.”

Should Mean Culture Belief Democracy Humanistic

Book:The Later Works, 1925-1953: 1938-1939

Source: The Later Works, 1925-1953: 1938-1939

“The conception that government should be guided by majority opinion makes sense only if that opinion is independent of government. The ideal of democracy rests on the belief that the view which will direct government emerges from an independent and spontaneous process. It requires, therefore, the existence of a large sphere independent of majority control in which the opinions of the individuals are formed.”

“I have no intention of slurring over the differences we have with socialism, nor concealing my belief that we are the National Party of Great Britain, representing not narrow class interest, nor the bigotry of the left wing intellectuals, but all those who support the British tradition of democracy, of personal freedom, of personal responsibility for one's own affairs and those of one's family, with the least possible interference from the State.”

“One of my beliefs very strongly is that any democracy depends on a free, healthy press.”

Belief Democracy Depends Healthy Presses Very Strong

Author:Steve Jobs

“I have one underlying principle in mind: the principle of Muslim democracy. It is my belief that our salvation lies in following the golden rules of conduct set for us by our great lawgiver, the Prophet of Islam.”

Mind Lying Belief Principles Democracy Salvation Islam Following Golden Prophet Golden Rule

Author:Muhammad Ali Jinnah

“Our democracy is predicated on the belief that our government should be accessible by the people. We cannot allow ourselves to give in to fear or shy away from interacting with the public.”

People Giving Should Government Belief Democracy Shy Interacting

Author:Erik Paulsen

“The Right of all members of society to form their own beliefs and communicate them freely to others must be regarded as an essential principle of a democratically organized society.”

Form Religion Individual Belief Principles Democracy Speech Members Essentials Communicate Propaganda Organized Censorship Prohibition Individual Rights

Author:Thomas I. Emerson

“We must consider not only why the classical theory of democracy appears to be in contradiction with the observed practice, but also why the many different responses to this observation, though mutually incompatible, all share the belief that democracy is the best form of political organization.”

Different Form Political Belief Practice Democracy Share Theory Organization Response Observation Contradiction

Author:Moses Finley

“It is the evil in man that makes democracy necessary, and man's belief in justice that makes democracy possible.”

Men Evil Belief Justice Democracy

Author:Reinhold Niebuhr

“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

“What do I believe in? Belief means faith, and there's only one damned thing in the world I have any faith in. That's the idea of American democracy, because it seems to me so obvious that that's the only sensible way to run human affairs.”

World Way Believe Humans Mean Ideas Seems Running Belief I Believe Democracy Affair Obvious I Believe In Sensible American Democracy

Author:Rex Stout

“He (former President Gerald Ford) made it very clear that he did not agree with the reasons President Bush laid out for the war, namely the belief that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq or that there was some obligation that the United States or the president had to expand democracy.”

“Having lived through the transition from totalitarianism, I am acutely mindful of the need to never take for granted the basic freedoms of thought, expression and belief that democracy brings.”

Needs Belief Democracy Expression Granted Transition Totalitarianism Freedom Of Thought Never Take For Granted

Author:Daisaku Ikeda

“Highly graduate taxation realizes most completely the supreme danger of democracy, creating a state of things in which one class imposes on another burdens which it is not asked to share, and impels the State into vast schemes of extravagance, under the belief that the whole costs will be thrown upon others.”

States Whole Belief Realizing Class Democracy Share Danger Cost Creating Burden Supreme Thrown Graduates Schemes Taxation Extravagance

Author:William Edward Hartpole Lecky

“Our ultimate weapon is not our guns but our beliefs ... Ours are not Western values. They are the universal values of the human spirit and anywhere, any time, ordinary people are given the chance to choose, the choice is the same. Freedom not tyranny. Democracy not dictatorship. The rule of law not the rule of the secret police. The spread of freedom is the best security for the free. It is our last line of defence and our first line of attack.”

“Democracy's my idea. I do not agree with communists, my acts prove. Free press in Cuba - free ideas, freedom religion belief.”

Ideas Belief Democracy Prove Agree Presses Communist Cuba Free Press

Author:Fidel Castro

“The strategic partnership between the European Union and the United States is rooted in our shared values of freedom, human rights, democracy and a belief in the market economy.”

Humans States Values Belief United United States Economy Democracy Rights Unions Human Rights Rooted Partnership Strategic European Union Market Economy Shared Values

Author:Donald Tusk