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Democracy Quotes

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Democracy Quotes

“Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.”

Source: The Politics of Education: Culture, Power, and Liberation

“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

“Demagogues and agitators are very unpleasant, they are incidental to a free and constitutional country, and you must put up with these inconveniences or do without many important advantages.”

Important Country Politics Power Democracy Security Advantage Constitution Tolerance Inconvenience

Author:Benjamin Disraeli

“Democracy, if it is reasonable, limits itself to giving everyone an equal opportunity to compete and to obtain.”

Ifs Giving Opportunity Politics Power Democracy Limits Equal Reasonable Equal Opportunity

Author:Napoleon Bonaparte

“Democracy can hardly be expected to flourish in societies where political and economic power is being progressively concentrated and centralized. But the progress of technology has led and is still leading to just such a concentration and centralization of power.”

Stills Political Technology Power Democracy Progress Economic Capitalism Expected Novelists Concentration Flourishing Economic Power Centralization

Book:Complete Essays: 1956-1963, and supplement, 1920-1948

Source: Complete Essays: 1956-1963, and supplement, 1920-1948

“Spiritual movements are revolts of thought against inertia, of the few against the many; of those who because they are strong in spirit are strongest alone against those who can express themselves only in the mass and the mob, and who are significant only because they are numerous.”

Spiritual Spirit Spirituality Politics Strong Freedom Liberty Power Democracy Movement Mass Significant Socialism Strongest Revolt Inertia Democracy Freedom

Book:Socialism - An Economic and Sociological Analysis: The Economist

Source: Socialism - An Economic and Sociological Analysis: The Economist

“One of the central assumptions of the concept of democracy, perhaps its most central assumption, is that by and large human beings are better judges of their own interests.... The operating maxim of the democratic ideology is, "Whoever wears the shoe knows best where it pinches.”

Knows Humans Interest Human Beings Power Democracy Judging Concepts Democratic Shoes Ideology Assumption Maxims

Author:Sidney Hook

“When it becomes dominated by a collectivist creed, democracy will inevitably destroy itself.”

Politics Power Democracy Socialism Creeds

Author:Friedrich August von Hayek

“The successful politician owes his power to the fact that he moves within the accepted framework of thought, that he thinks and talks conventionally. It would be almost a contradiction in terms for a politician to be a leader in the field of ideas. His task in a democracy is to find out what the opinions held by the largest number are, not to give currency to new opinions which may become the majority view in some distant future.”

“If one meets a powerful person--Adolf Hitler, Joe Stalin or Bill Gates--ask them five questions: "What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you exercise it? To whom are you accountable? And how can we get rid of you?”

Political Interest Power Democracy Five Policy Politician Exercise Accountability Interest Groups

Author:Tony Benn