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Democracy Quotes

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Democracy Quotes

“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

“But the moment the politicians start saying they are in denial of what the scientists are telling them, of what the consensus of scientific experiments demonstrates, that is the beginning of the end of an informed democracy.”

Ends Moments Democracy Politician Scientist Experiments Denial Consensus

Author:Neil deGrasse Tyson

“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

“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)

“My husband is not American. He was born in Brazil, where he grew up under a filthy, corrupt dictatorship. In his twenties, he moved to Europe, where he lived for a while under various socialist democracies. He spent a few years on a kibbutz in Israel, living out a utopian experiment in communal existence.”

Years Born Existence Democracy Grew Husband Grew Up Europe Twenties Moved Various Israel Experiments My Husband Dictatorship Socialist Brazil Utopian Filthy

Author:Elizabeth Gilbert

“When a democracy reaches a point where the politicians cannot say no to the people, and both parties are competing for votes by promising even more spending or even lower taxes, or both, the experiment is about over.”

People Party Democracy Politician Taxes Vote Spending Experiments Competing

Author:Pat Buchanan

“If the great Western experiment fails and we end up living in totalitarian war-on-terrorism states, one day someone's going to say, 'Well democracy doesn't work because they had to give it up'.”

Ifs Giving Wells War Ends States Democracy Failing One Day Western Terrorism Experiments War On Terrorism

Author:Martin Firrell

“If democracy succeeds in Egypt, other countries will follow. Should the democratic experiment in Egypt be hijacked by the military or anti-democratic Islamist groups, the revolution will fail elsewhere.”

Ifs Should Country Democracy Failing Groups Military Revolution Succeed Spring Democratic Experiments Elsewhere Other Countries Egypt Islamists Arab Spring

Author:David Ignatius

“After many unhappy experiments in the direction of an ideal Republic, it was found that what may be described as a Despotism tempered by Dynamite provides, on the whole, the most satisfactory description of ruler - an autocrat who dares not abuse his autocratic power.”

May Whole Found Democracy Ideals Abuse Dare Experiments Unhappy Description Republic Rulers Despotism Dynamite

Book:The Complete Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan

Source: The Complete Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan

“There's a longstanding myth about the United States that is still very prevalent in Europe [despite recent developments]. Historically the "America" of this myth is an incredible human adventure and an experiment in political democracy. But at the same time, or so we're told, it's the land of extremes where the worst can happen.”

Humans Stills States Happens America Political United United States Democracy Land Worst Adventure Development Europe Incredibles Extremes Myth Experiments Despite

Author:Bruno Dumont

“Our political experiment of democracy, the last refuge of cheap misgovernment.”

Lasts Political Democracy Experiments Refuge

Book:George Bernard Shaw: The Collected Plays (Illustrated): 60 plays including Caesar and Cleopatra, Pygmalion, Saint Joan, The Apple Cart, Cymbeline, Androcles And The Lion, The Man Of Destiny, The Inca Of Perusalem and Macbeth Skit

Source: George Bernard Shaw: The Collected Plays (Illustrated): 60 plays including Caesar and Cleopatra, Pygmalion, Saint Joan, The Apple Cart, Cymbeline, Androcles And The Lion, The Man Of Destiny, The Inca Of Perusalem and Macbeth Skit

“The procedure we are pursuing is that of true democracy. Semi-democracy accepts the dictatorship of a majority in establishing its arbitrary, ergo, unnatural, laws. True democracy discovers by patient experiment and unanimous acknowledgement what the laws of nature or universe may be for the physical support and metaphysical satisfaction of the human intellect's function in universe.”

Source: Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth

“Democracy is but an experiment in the long history of the world.”

World Long Democracy Experiments World History

Author:Mark McKinnon

“Democracy is only an experiment in government, and it has the obvious disadvantage of merely counting votes instead of weighing them.”

Government Democracy Vote Obvious Experiments Counting Disadvantages Weighing

Author:William Ralph Inge

“If you've got on the one hand death, dogmatism, domination, and on the other you've got desire in the face of death, dialogue in the face of dogmatism, democracy in the face of domination, then philosophy itself becomes a critical disposition of wrestling with desire in the face of death, wrestling with dialogue in the face of dogmatism, and wrestling with democracy, trying to keep alive a very fragile democratic experiment.”

Ifs Trying Philosophy Hands Faces Desire Democracy Alive Democratic Critical Experiments Dialogue Wrestling Fragile Disposition Domination Dogmatism

Author:Cornel West

“As believers in democracy we have not only the right but the duty to question existing mechanisms of, say, suffrage and to inquire whether some functional organization would not serve to formulate and manifest public opinion better than the existing methods. It is not irrelevant to the point that a score of passages could be cited in which Jefferson refers to the American Government as an experiment.”

Government Opinion Democracy Duty Organization Method Believer Experiments Score Manifest Passages Mechanism Irrelevant Public Opinion Suffrage American Government

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

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

“The United Nations is an uplifting experiment, dedicated to raising the standards of living in Africa , the consciences of democracies, and the price of prostitutes in New York”

Nations United Democracy New York Standards Conscience Experiments Uplifting Dedicated United Nations Standards Of Living

Author:Frank Dane

“India is this great experiment of a billion people of such great diverse persuasions working together, seeking their salvation in the framework of a democracy. I believe it will have some lessons for all the multicultural societies.”

People Believe Together I Believe Democracy Lessons India Salvation Seeking Billions Experiments Working Together Diverse Persuasion Framework Multicultural Multicultural Society

Author:Manmohan Singh