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Democracy Quotes

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Democracy Quotes

“The problem with the West is that they start with political reform going towards democracy. If you want to go towards democracy, the first thing is to involve the people in decision making, not to make it.”

People Ifs Want Firsts Problem Political Decision Democracy West Reform Decision Making Political Reform

Author:Bashar al-Assad

“We should - we will - welcome people of faith into the political process... It is essential that believers enter the arena. Your involvement in politics helps determine how well our democracy works. We have finally learned that government programs cannot solve our problems. Government can hand out money, but government cannot put hope in our hearts or a sense of purpose in our lives.”

“The essence of what exists in the U.S. is not democracy but capitalism - imperialism. What the U.S. spreads around the world is not democracy, but imperialism and political structures to enforce that imperialism.”

World Political Democracy Capitalism Essence Structure Spread Around The World Imperialism

Author:Bob Avakian

“What is music in America? It's this stand-in for political action in a lot of senses. We have no democracy and we have no art culture, and we've long considered politics nebbish-y and hopelessly unsexy. So a lot of what would be considered political activism is channeled into cultural work.”

Long Art Would Be Action America Political Culture Democracy Activism Senses Political Action Political Activism

Author:Ian Svenonius

“Pakistans future viability, stability and security lie in empowering its people and building political institutions. My goal is to prove that the fundamental battle for the hearts and minds of a generation can be accomplished only under democracy.”

“Let the people decide whom to vote for, who has more authority. And only people, only our citizens, are able to place the final emphasis, voting for this or that person or political force, or rejecting it. Thats democracy.”

People Persons Able Political Force Democracy Citizens Authority Vote Finals Voting Emphasis Rejecting

Author:Dmitry Medvedev

“Political disagreements have the colour and fragrance that normally is seen and felt in a political bouquet, while remaining united on one issue that democracy is the future of Pakistan.”

Political Felt United Democracy Issues Colour Pakistan Fragrance Disagreement Bouquets

Author:Asif Ali Zardari

“In a well-functioning democracy, citizens have the option of voting their political masters out of office. Not so in most companies.”

Wells Political Company Democracy Masters Citizens Office Voting

Author:Gary Hamel

“Schools need not preach political doctrine to defend democracy. If they shape men capable of critical thought and trained in social attitudes, that is all that is necessary.”

Ifs Men Needs School Political Social Education Attitude Democracy Shapes Capable Critical Doctrine

Author:Albert Einstein

“Constant conflict is actually often good politics. Because the more you can inflame your supporters the more likely they are to show up at election day. And if they're more inflamed than the other side, even if the other side has more people agreeing with it, you'll win, because your crowd will show up.”

“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.”

Made States Seems Government Political Responsibility Democracy Modern Essentials Institutions Merit Immense Representatives Distribution Indirect Modern Times Representative Government Political Responsibility

Book:The Quotable Bertrand Russell

Source: The Quotable Bertrand Russell

“People call me a socialist sometimes. But, no, you gotta meet real socialists. You'll have a sense of what a socialist is.”

People Real Sometimes Reality Political Politics Money Party Democracy Comedy Wall Taxes Socialism Ideology Call Me Free Speech Socialist Political Parties Free Market

Author:Barack Obama

“One faction of one party, in one house of Congress, in one branch of government, doesn't get to shut down the entire government just to refight the results of an election.”

“You know what? I think the American people are a little pissed, and I think they're pissed at both parties - I think they're really pissed at both parties - and it will be reflected during election time.”

People Thinking Knows Littles Reality Political Politics Community Money Party Democracy Election Ideology Voting Political Parties Election Time

Author:Whoopi Goldberg

“Today, unfortunately, the right to vote seems to have become a partisan issue. Democrats seek to guarantee and expand voting rights. Republicans try to undermine and suppress voting rights.”

“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.”

“The Senate used to be a place of great debate and accomplishment. Now it is run like a dictatorship shutting out the voices of millions of Americans.”

“Now, here's a good question: should serious people focus on global political instability - terrorism, failing states, nuclear weapons - or should we focus on global climate instability - droughts, floods, extreme weather? Here's the correct answer: yes, both, because climate disruption will make every other national security problem worse.”

“In the 2012 election, Obamacare, as it's called, and I'll be more polite - the ACA ...was a major issue in the campaign. I campaigned all over America for two months, everywhere I could. And in every single campaign rally I said, 'We have to repeal and replace Obamacare.' Well, the people spoke. They spoke, much to my dismay, but they spoke. And they reelected the President of the United States.”

“I view the United States, today, much like East Berlin. And I'm off the grid. I've tried for 20 years to warn the country about the Democrats and Republicans, and nobody's listening.”

“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

“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

“The philanthropic tradition is older than democracy, older than Christianity, and older than higher education. It gives form and purpose to personal and social life that cannot be provided by the self-interest of economic enterprise or required by the mandate of political institutions.”

“Putting it as strongly as I can, the failure to give free airtime for our political campaigns endangers our democracy.”

Giving I Can Political Democracy Campaigns Political Campaign

Author:Walter Cronkite

“Excessive partisanship is the problem. There has never been a democracy in the history of the world in a polity of any size where you didn't have political parties. Even sometimes over the objections of the people who started it.”

People World Sometimes Problem Political Party Democracy Size Political Parties World History Objections Partisanship

Author:Barney Frank

“It takes money to run political campaigns. This is a cancer growing on the soul of our democracy.”

Soul Running Political Democracy Growing Cancer Campaigns Political Campaign

Author:Elizabeth Warren

“Every American should have above average income, and my Administration is going to see they get it.”

Should Political Democracy Should Have Average Income Administration Above Average

Author:William J. Clinton

“With the law books filled with a great assortment of crimes, a prosecutor stands a fair chance of finding at least a technical violation of some act on the part of almost anyone. In such a case, it is not a question of discovering the commission of a crime and then looking for the man who has committed it, it is a question of picking the man and then searching the law books, or putting investigators to work, to pin some offense on him.”

Men Book Law Political Chance Cases Democracy Crime He Man Findings Fairs Filled Committed Discovering Offense Pins Violation Prosecutor Investigators Law Books

Author:Robert H. Jackson

“It was a charming fantasy of romantics that the spies would stop spying, that political conflict would end and politicians would tell the truth. Unfortunately that has not been the case.”

Ends Political Cases Fantasy Democracy Politician Conflict Telling The Truth Charming Spy

Author:John le Carre

“The political system of the People's Republic of China can make things easy. Decisions are made quickly and results come quickly, too. In our democracy [in India], on the other hand, such things are extremely difficult.”

People Made Hands Political Easy Difficult Decision Results Democracy India China Republic Political Systems

Author:Ratan Tata

“That's really a part of my nature , it goes along with autonomy and independence of action - it's just that I don't identify with the local group, no matter what it is, whether it's the human species or the American democracy, the nation, the country, religions, political parties, nothing. None of these have my allegiance because I'm not really concerned with what they do. I don't feel a part of any of this.”

“In this world which is losing faith in so called representative democracy, there are new developments in participatory democracy. These are very interesting developments, reflecting the revitalization of community power with a more and more active presence of minorities in political life, including the presence of women who are of course by no means a minority.”

“The problem with the West is that they start with political reform going towards democracy.”

Problem Political Democracy West Reform Political Reform

Author:Bashar al-Assad

“Fascism is a system of political authority and social order intended to reinforce the unity, energy, and purity of communities in which liberal democracy stands accused of producing division and decline.”

Political Order Politics Energy Social Community Democracy Authority Unity Purity Division Fascism Decline Accused Social Order Liberal Democracy

Author:Robert O. Paxton

“The citizen can bring our political and governmental institutions back to life, make them responsive and accountable, and keep them honest. No one else can.”

Political Democracy Honest Citizens Institutions Patriotic

Author:John Gardner

“Self-Criticism is the secret weapon of democracy, and candor and confession are good for the political soul.”

Soul Self Political Secret Democracy Weapons Criticism Confession Candor Self Criticism

Author:Adlai Stevenson I

“Public confidence in the integrity of the Government is indispensable to faith in democracy; and when we lose faith in the system, we have lost faith in everything we fight and spend for.”

Government Political Fighting Lost Loses Democracy Confidence Integrity Indispensable Lost Faith

Author:Adlai E. Stevenson

“Highly intelligent and well-informed people disagree on every political issue. Therefore, intelligence and knowledge are useless for making decisions, because if any of that stuff helped, then all the smart people would have the same opinions. So use your "gut instinct" to make voting choices. That is exactly like being clueless, but with the added advantage that you'll feel as if your random vote preserved democracy.”

“We can look forward to four more years of wonderful, inspirational speeches full of wit, poetry, music, love and affection, plus more goddamn nonsense.”

Years Looks Political Democracy Four Wonderful Speech Affection Wit Nonsense Plus Music Love Love And Affection Inspirational Speech

Author:David Brinkley

“The role of campaign contributions in our political system and the role of lobbyists have now reached levels that are quite unhealthy for the operations of our democracy. But the antidote, as in past eras of lobbyist excess, is for more involvement by citizens to build pressure on members of the House and Senate to serve the public interest.”

“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

“...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

“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

“Journalism is one of the devices whereby industrial autocracy keeps its control over political democracy; it is the day-by-day, between-elections propaganda, whereby the minds of the people are kept in a state of acquiescence, so that when the crisis of an election comes, they go to the polls and cast their ballots for either one of the two candidates of their exploiters.”

People Mind Two States Political Democracy Election Crisis Casts Journalism Propaganda Candidates Devices Polls Ballots Autocracy Acquiescence

Book:The Brass Check: A Study of American Journalism

Source: The Brass Check: A Study of American Journalism

“You measure a democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists.”

Giving Political Freedom Democracy Conformist Dissidents Voting And Democracy Democracy Freedom Sacred Cows

Author:Abbie Hoffman

“Avoid all needle drugs, the only dope worth shooting is Richard Nixon.”

Funny Political Politics Democracy Drug Shooting Pot Needles Cocaine Dope Drug Addiction Drug Addict Sacred Cows Funny Drug

Author:Abbie Hoffman

“Political struggle is the most important thing any of us can do as a citizen in a democracy; and that means the old joining the young to fight for elemental kinds of justice.”

Kind Mean Important Young Political Fighting Can Do Justice Struggle Democracy Citizens Important Things Joining Elementals Political Struggle

Author:Jonathan Kozol

“If the country is to survive as a democracy it will depend on voters who understand how our political institutions have evolved and the events that went into their creation. A nation's sense of its history is indistinguishable from its social cohesion.”

Ifs Country Political Nations Social Democracy Events Creation Depends Institutions Voters Cohesion Political Institutions

Author:Alan Bullock

“There is nothing more basic to our democracy than the right to participate in electing our political leaders.”

Political Leader Democracy Political Leaders

Author:Mark Shields

“I worry that we don't currently have a democracy in the United States. Instead we have what [political philosopher] Sheldon Wolin has recently labeled a sort of inverted totalitarianism.”

States Political United Worry United States Democracy Philosopher Totalitarianism Inverted

Author:Thomas L. Dumm