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Democracy Quotes

Browse 5972 quotes about Democracy.

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Democracy Quotes

“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.”

HumansMadeDoneGovernmentFormGrowthAbilityExistenceClassDemocracyGenerationsWallEssentialsRaisedPrivilegeHarmBrokeOperationsEnterpriseDefectsHuman ExistenceForms Of GovernmentDemocracies HaveDeductionsCamaraderieZestPitfalls
Book:The Lessons of History
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“There comes a time in the affairs of men when they must prepare to defend not their homes alone but the tenets of faith and humanity on which their churches, their governments and their very foundations are set. The defense of religion, of democracy and of good faith among nations is all the same fight. To save one, we must now make up our minds to save all.”

MenMindHomeGovernmentHumanityFightingNationsChurchDemocracyFoundationAffairDefenseAggressionThere Comes A TimeGood Faith
Author:Franklin D. Roosevelt
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“It took six weeks of debate in the Senate to get the Arms Embargo Law repealed--and we face other delays during the present session because most of the Members of the Congress are thinking in terms of next Autumn's election.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.”

IfsThinkingGovernmentFacesLawNextTermPayDemocracyWeekArmsTypeMembersSixElectionCongressPopulationDebateRussiaGermanyAutumnSenateDictatorshipUnfortunateDelaySessionDemocracies HaveEmbargo
Author:Franklin D. Roosevelt
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“The devotion of democracy to education is a familiar fact. The superficial explanation is that a government resting upon popular suffrage cannot be successful unless those who elect and who obey their governors are educated. Since a democratic society repudiates the principle of external authority, it must find a substitute in voluntary disposition and interest; these can be created only by education.”

FactsGovernmentInterestEducationPrinciplesDemocracySuccessfulAuthorityDemocraticDevotionFamiliarEducatedExplanationBeing SuccessfulSubstitutesGovernorsSuperficialDispositionSuffrageDemocratic Society
Book:Democracy and Education: Top American Authors
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“A State, in idea, is the opposite of a Church. A State regards classes, and not individuals; and it estimates classes, not by internal merit, but external accidents, as property, birth, etc. But a church does the reverse of this, and disregards all external accidents, and looks at men as individual persons, allowing no gradations of ranks, but such as greater or less wisdom, learning, and holiness ought to confer. A Church is, therefore, in idea, the only pure democracy.”

MenLooksPersonsDoeIdeasStatesGovernmentIndividualChurchClassDemocracyGreaterOughtBirthPureOppositesRegardPropertyAccidentsMeritHolinessEtcInternalsAllowingReverseLook At MeDisregard
Book:Golden Hours with Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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“The two great points of difference between a democracy and a republic are: first, the delegation of the government, in the latter,to a small number of citizens elected by the rest; secondly, the greater number of citizens and greater sphere of country over which the latter may be extended.”

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Book:The Federalist Papers and the Constitution of the United States: The Principles of the American Government
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“The institution of representative government to us seems an essential part of democracy, but the ancients never thought of it. Its immense merit was that it enabled a large constituency to exert indirect power, and thus made possible the distribution of political responsibility throughout the great states of modern times.”

MadeStatesSeemsGovernmentPoliticalResponsibilityDemocracyModernEssentialsInstitutionsMeritImmenseRepresentativesDistributionIndirectModern TimesRepresentative GovernmentPolitical Responsibility
Book:The Quotable Bertrand Russell
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“By sending the contradictory message that the famous are just plain folks on Mount Olympus, America has forged a relentless tension between loftiness and accessibility. Stir in the fact that the inborn talent and intelligence needed to achieve fame are immune to distributive tinkering by government programs and you have a definition of fame certain to produce envious rage: somebody screwed democracy.”

FactsGovernmentAmericaCertainDemocracyAchieveTalentProduceNeededFameMessagesProgramFolksDefinitionsEqualityEnvyRageTensionContradictoryRelentlessImmuneEnviousForgedAccessibilityGovernment ProgramsOlympusTinkering
Author:Florence King
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“But having made my decision as Commander-in-Chief based on what I am convinced is our national security interests, I will seek authorization for the use of force from the American people's representatives in Congress.”

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Author:Barack Obama
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“All modes of government are failures. Despotism is unjust to everybody, including the despot, who was probably made for better things. Oligarchies are unjust to the many, and ochlocracies are unjust to the few. High hopes were once formed of democracy; but democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people. It has been found out. I must say that it was high time, for all authority is quite degrading. It degrades those who exercise it, and degrades those over whom it is exercised.”

PeopleMeanHas BeensMadeGovernmentFoundDemocracyExerciseAuthorityIncludingUnjustDespotismDegradeDegradingOligarchyDespots
Author:Oscar Wilde
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“The logic of all this seems to be that it is all right for young people in a democracy to learn about any civilization or social theory that is not dangerous, but that they should remain entirely ignorant of any civilization or social theory that might be dangerous on the ground that what you don't know can't hurt you ... a complete denial of the democratic principle that the general diffusion of knowledge and learning through the community is essential to the preservation of free government.”

PeopleKnowsShouldSeemsGovernmentMightYoungSocialCommunityHurtEducationPrinciplesDemocracyDangerousTheoryCivilizationEssentialsLogicDemocraticIgnorantDenialPreservationFree GovernmentDiffusionKnowledge And LearningSocial Theory
Book:Freedom and Responsibility in the American Way of Life
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“It is a law of nature that everything run by the government will get more expensive and worse over time. Everything run by the private sector will get better and cheaper over time. The fact that [Obamacare] starts this badly does not bode well....We want healthcare run on the same system that gave us cell phones, flat screens, Jerry Garcia chia pets. Everything you submit to the free market...keeps getting better and better.”

WantWellsDoeFactsRealityGovernmentRunningLawPoliticalPoliticsMoneyPartyHistoryTechnologyDemocracyHuman NatureHealthCapitalismPhonesScreensIdeologyCellsGet BetterExpensivePetFlatsHealthcareSubmitConsumerismPolitical PartiesFree MarketLaws Of NatureCell PhoneObamacareCheaperPrivate SectorJerry
Author:Ann Coulter
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“I wish I could take back some of the things I said and some of the things I did. But in the bigger picture, I don't feel that it was violent and terrible. I feel like it was primarily--obviously not completely--moral, based on a vision that the government should be better, and that people could be better, and that democracy should be real.”

PeopleFeelsShouldSaidRealGovernmentWishMoralVisionDemocracyTerribleMoralityBiggerViolentBeing RealBigger Picture
Author:Bernardine Dohrn
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“One of the things that I realized when I left office was that in the 1990's citizens across the world applied more power than they had ever had, as compared with the government, because of more people living under democracies than dictatorships for the first time, the power of the internet, which the young Chinese used to basically change China's policy on the SARS epidemic, and shut it down, and because of the rise in non-governmental organizations like my foundation.”

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Author:William J. Clinton
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“I believe that people have a right to decide their own destinies; people own themselves. I also believe that, in a democracy, government exists because (and only so long as) individual citizens give it a temporary license to exist, in exchange for a promise that it will behave itself. In a democracy, you own the government. It doesn't own you.”

PeopleGivingBelieveLongGovernmentIndividualI BelieveDestinyDemocracyCitizensPromiseBehaveTemporaryLicense
Author:Frank Zappa
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“But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts--for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own Governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free.”

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Author:Woodrow Wilson
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“Corporations are a good thing. But corporations should not be running our government... They have driven the American economy since its founding, and the prosperity of our country is largely dependent on the free operation of corporations. But some corporations don't want free markets, and they don't want democracy. They want profits.”

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Author:Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
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“In Latin America, in the past, it was almost impossible to guarantee democracy. There were military dictatorships, and nowadays there are not so many military dictatorships. Although we have a dictator in Honduras, as a result of a coup, now as a president, he is almost the only one I would say. But again led or managed, gestated by the U.S. government.”

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Author:Evo Morales
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“Well, we are Americans. I've always believed that you work with where you are - I am a Mormon woman who was raised on the edge of the Great Salt Lake in the American West in the United States of America. But, by the same token, much of my life has been spent resisting traditional forms of democracy, resisting traditional forms of orthodoxy, be it the United States government or the Mormon Church.”

WellsHas BeensStatesGovernmentAmericaFormChurchUnitedUnited StatesDemocracyWestRaisedEdgesTraditionalLakesWhere You AreSaltUnited States Of AmericaAlways BelieveOrthodoxyResistingState GovernmentTokensUnited States GovernmentAmerican West
Author:Terry Tempest Williams
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“Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.”

GovernmentLostFreedomLibertyForeverDemocracyConstitutionPatriotFoundingFreedom And LibertyFreedom LibertyOur Founding FathersUs Founding FathersForefathersFounding AmericaEncroachmentUs ConstitutionAmerican PatriotismAmerican LibertyAmerican PatriotGovernment And Society
Book:The Book of Abigail and John: Selected Letters of the Adams Family, 1762-1784
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