Best democracy & states Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 2

“Corporation: a miniature totalitarian state governed by a hierarchy of unelected officials who take a dim view of individualism, free speech, equality and eggheads. The backbone of all Western democracies.”

States Views Democracy Speech Western Corporations Officials Individualism Free Speech Hierarchy Backbone Miniatures Totalitarian State Eggheads

Author:Rick Bayan

“So many of the new nations which were established as democracies after the second world war, during the decolonizing process, have now changed their system to state-socialism. Small elites run them, and they aren't sharing societies. They aren't even socialist. The power of the state has been merged with business property and you have the greatest concentration of power that's possible.”

“Also, an area that interests me - and it will probably take years to state what I mean - is the period of the rise of democracy, with Tom Paine, which is around the turn of the 18th century into the 19th.”

Years Mean States Turns Interest Democracy Century Periods Areas Toms 18th Century Paine Tom Paine

Author:Fiona Shaw

“The basic struggle today is not between individualism and collectivism, free enterprise and socialism, democracy and dictatorship. These are only the superficial manifestations of a deeper struggle which is moral and spiritual and involves above all else whether man shall exist for the state, or the state for man, and whether freedom is of the spirit or a concession of a materialized society.”

“A democracy flirts with the danger of becoming a slave in direct ratio to the numbers of its citizens who work, but do not own / or who own, but do not work; or who distribute, as politicians do, but do not produce. The danger of the "slave state" disappears in ratio to the numbers of people who own property and admit its attendant responsibilities under God. They can call their souls their own because they own and administer something other than their souls. Thus they are free.”

People Soul States Wisdom Politics Numbers Responsibility Economy Democracy Danger Produce Becoming Citizens Politician Direct Property Slave Disappear Liberalism Flirting Ratios

Author:Fulton J. Sheen

“A great wave of humiliation and shame swept over me. Shame that I belonged to a race that could be so dealt with; and shame for my country, that it, the great example of democracy to the world, should be the only civilized, if not the only state on earth, where a human being would be burned alive.”

Source: The Selected Writings of James Weldon Johnson: Social, political, and literary essays

“The establishment of religious freedom was no less momentous an achievement than the clearing of the great forest or the winning of independence, for the twin doctrines of separation of church and state and liberty of individual conscience are the marrow of our democracy, if not indeed America's most magnificent contribution to the freeing of Western man.”

“Republicans are systematically and deliberately trying to stop millions of American citizens from voting. What part of democracy are they afraid of? I call on Republicans at all levels of government, with all manner of ambition, to stop fear mongering about a phantom epidemic of election fraud. I'm calling for universal, automatic voter registration, every citizen in every state in the union.”

“A father of the church said that property was theft, many centuries before Proudhon was born. Bourdaloue reaffirmed it. Montesquieu was the inventor of national workshops and of the theory that the state owed every man a living. Nay, was not the church herself the first organized democracy?”

Men Firsts Said States Father Born Church Democracy Century Theory Property Every Man Organized Theft Inventor Workshops Montesquieu

Book:Books and Libraries: Democracy, and Other Papers

Source: Books and Libraries: Democracy, and Other Papers

“A democratic state is not proven by the welfare of the strong but by the welfare of the weak.”

States Strong Democracy Weak Democratic Welfare Proven

Book:Some of Us Did Not Die: New and Selected Essays

Source: Some of Us Did Not Die: New and Selected Essays

“What frightens me about America today is that in the large majority there is no active sense of the value of the individual: few citizens feel that they are the Republic, responsible for what happens. And when the individual in a democracy ceases to feel his importance, then there is grave danger that he will give over his freedom, if not to a Fascist State, then to the advertising men or Publicity Agents or to the newspaper he happens to read.”

“laughter, that distinctively human emotion, laughter which springs from trust in the other, from willingness to put oneself momentarily in the other's place, even at one's own expense, is the special emotional basis of democratic procedures, just as pride is the emotion of an aristocracy, shame of a crowd that rules, and fear of a police state.”

Humans States Emotion Democracy Special Emotional Pride Spring Laughter Bases Police Shame Democratic Oneself Crowds Expenses Willingness Procedures Aristocracy Police State Human Emotions

Author:Margaret Mead

“Uncontrollable consumerism has become a watchword of our culture despite regular and compelling calls for its end. The United States has more malls than high schools; Americans spend more time shopping than reading. ... Some of the most insightful writing about the American character over the nation's history has been about neither freedom nor democracy but about the crazed impulse to acquire things.”

Source: Loud and Clear

“I am still baffled by those who feel that criticizing America is unpatriotic, a view increasingly being adopted in the United States since 9/11 as an excuse to render suspect what has always been an American right. An active, brave, outspoken (and heard) citizenry is essential to a healthy democracy.”

Feels Stills States America United Views United States Democracy Heard Healthy Essentials Brave Excuse Active Suspects Criticize Adopted Citizenry Outspoken Baffled Unpatriotic Being Adopted

Book:My Life So Far

Source: My Life So Far

“democracy produces both heroes and villains, but it differs from a fascist state in that it does not produce a hero who is a villain.”

Doe States Democracy Produce Hero Villain Fascists Heroes And Villains

Author:Margaret Halsey

“stop spying on the lawful citizenry. Democracy and dossiers go ill together. It is all right for God but all wrong for the State to keep its eye on sparrows.”

States Eye Together Democracy Rights Ill Privacy Sparrows Citizenry

Book:The View From The Ground

Source: The View From The Ground

“As even a democracy like the United States has shown, waging war can benefit a leader in several ways: it can rally citizens around the flag, it can distract them from bleak economic times, and it can enrich a country's elites.”

Way War Country States United Leader United States Democracy Economic Citizens Benefits Flags Elites Bleak Waging War

Author:Samantha Power

“Today the United States has the highest prison population in the world, over 2.1 million people. ... We lock people up at a rate that is seven to ten times that of any other democracy.”

People World States Today United Millions United States Democracy Ten Highest Prison Seven Rate Population Locks Prison Population

Book:Insecure at Last: Losing It in Our Security-Obsessed World

Source: Insecure at Last: Losing It in Our Security-Obsessed World

“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

“The United States of America has helped underwrite the global security for more than six decades with the blood of our citizens and the strength of our arms. The service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform has promoted peace and prosperity from Germany to Korea and enabled democracy to take hold in places like the Balkans.”

“In the United States the government has become less important. So, it's democracy, but as each year passes it seems that the government plays less of a role in people's lives, and so they're living in whatever situation their employment imposes upon them more than they're living in a grand political system.”

People Years Important States Play Seems Government Political United Situation Roles United States Democracy Employment Political Systems

Author:Will Oldham

“Every man should be responsible to others, nor should anyone be allowed to do just as he pleases; for where absolute freedom is allowed there is nothing to restrain the evil which is inherent in every man. But the principle of responsibility secures that which is the greatest good in states; the right persons rule and are prevented from doing wrong, and the people have their due. It is evident that this is the best kind of democracy, and why? because the people are drawn from a certain class.”

Source: Aristotle's Politics: Writings from the Complete Works: Politics, Economics, Constitution of Athens

“Neither should we forget the mean, which at the present day is lost sight of in perverted forms of government; for many practices which appear to be democratical are the ruin of democracies, . . Those who think that all virtue is to be found in their own party principles push matters to extremes; they do not consider that disproportion destroys a state.”

Thinking Should Mean Matter States Government Form Found Lost Forget Party Principles Practice Virtue Democracy Sight Extremes Ruins Forms Of Government Present Day

Book:Politics

Source: Politics

“I saw in States' rights the only availing check upon the absolutism of the sovereign will, and secession filled me with hope, not as the destruction but as the redemption of Democracy.... Therefore I deemed that you were fighting the battles of our liberty, our progress, and our civilization, and I mourn for the stake which was lost at Richmond more deeply than I rejoice over that which was saved at Waterloo.”

“In a democracy, dynasty politics is wrong. We need to free the state and nation from it.”

Needs States Nations Democracy India Election Dynasty

Author:Narendra Modi

“Since Israel is a democratic state surrounded by essentially undemocratic states which have sworn her destruction, those interested in democracy everywhere must support Israel's existence.”

States Existence Support Democracy Destruction Democratic Israel

Author:Bayard Rustin

“Pick the topic you like: the Middle East, international terrorism, Central America, whatever it is - the picture of the world that's presented to the public has only the remotest relation to reality. The truth of the matter is buried under edifice after edifice of lies upon lies. It's all been a marvelous success from the point of view in deterring the threat of democracy, achieved under conditions of freedom, which is extremely interesting. It's not like a totalitarian state, where it's done by force. These achievements are under conditions of freedom.”

Source: Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda

“The United States can't impose democracies. We can't impose our will. The Russians found that out in Afghanistan.”

States Found United United States Democracy Afghanistan

Author:Chuck Hagel

“Democracy means doing whatever you want without asking permission of anybody but your boss, your doctor, your lawyer, your landlord, your bank, your city, your state and federal authorities, and your wife and children.”

Want Mean Children States Government Cities Democracy Wife Authority Doctors Asking Lawyer Boss Permission Landlord Asking Permission

Author:Sam Levenson

“Democracy is an experimental system. I like it when states try out new ideas. I think we ought to expand, not contract, our federalist system.”

Thinking Trying Ideas States Democracy Ought Contracts New Ideas Federalist

Author:Alex Tabarrok

“Collective bargaining has always been the bedrock of the American labor movement. I hope that you will continue to anchor your movement to this foundation. Free collective bargaining is good for the entire Nation. In my view, it is the only alternative to State regulation of wages and prices - a path which leads far down the grim road of totalitarianism. Those who would destroy or further limit the rights of organized labor - those who would cripple collective bargaining or prevent organization of the unorganized - do a disservice to the cause of democracy.”

“If we lived in a democratic state our language would have to hurtle, fly, curse, and sing, in all the common American names, all the undeniable and representative and participating voices of everybody here.”

Ifs States Names Language Voice Common Democracy Diversity Democratic Curse Representatives Participating Cultural Diversity

Book:Some of Us Did Not Die: New and Selected Essays

Source: Some of Us Did Not Die: New and Selected Essays

“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.”

Source: Golden Hours with Samuel Taylor Coleridge

“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

“The worst of all States is the democratic State.”

States Democracy Worst Democratic Tyranny Despotism All State

Author:Pierre Corneille

“We have to be realistic about what we can achieve in Afghanistan. The notion that the United States can build a Western-style democracy there is a myth”

States United United States Democracy Achieve Style Western Notion Myth Realistic Afghanistan

Author:Barbara Boxer

“I have talked to more people who are in politics who have said to me, "[House of Cards] is closer than you can imagine. It's the most accurate description of how politics actually works that we've ever seen." I mean, West Wing - beautiful, wonderful idea of how democracy should work. But I've had more people in politics say they think House of Cards is closer. I - don't know whether to take that as a compliment or a sad state of affairs.”

People Thinking Knows Should Mean Said Ideas States Beautiful House Politics Community Democracy Imagine Wonderful Policy Wings West Affair Cards Description Compliment Accurate House Of Cards

Author:Kevin Spacey

“Science is neither a single tradition, nor the best tradition there is, except for people who have become accustomed to its presence, its benefits and its disadvantages. In a democracy it should be separated from the state just as churches are now separated from the state.”

People Should States Science Church Democracy Benefits Tradition Accustomed Disadvantages

Book:Against Method

Source: Against Method

“We all accuse Vladimir Putin of Cold War nostalgia, but Washington's elites - politicians and intellectuals - miss the old days as well. They wish for the world in which the United States was utterly dominant over its friends, its foes were to be shunned entirely, and the challenges were stark, moral, and vital. Today's world is messy and complicated. China is one of our biggest trading partners and our looming geopolitical rival. Russia is a surly spoiler, but it has a globalized middle class and has created ties in Europe.”

“The Court is making the preposterous assumption that the People of the United States somehow silently redefined marriage in 1868 when they ratified the 14th Amendment.”

“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.”

“Is there any other democracy where the voters are as spoiled as they are in the United States? Especially, of course, in certain states, such as Iowa and New Hampshire, where the old joke is literally true about the citizens who say they haven't yet formed an opinion about a candidate because they've only met the fellow a few times.”

States Certain Courses United Opinion United States Democracy Havens Citizens Mets Jokes Fellows Candidates Voters Law Enforcement Spoiled Iowa Hampshire New Hampshire Old Jokes

Author:Michael Kinsley

“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.”

“Like an odorless gas, [inequality] pervades every corner of the United States and saps the strength of the country's democracy. But it seems impossible to find the source and shut it off.”

Country States Seems United Poverty United States Democracy Impossible Source Corners Inequality Gas Sap

Author:George Packer

“We tie ourselves in knots when we act as if democracy is good for the United States and Israel but not for the Arab world. For far too long, we've treated the Arab world as just an oil field.”

Ifs World Long States United United States Democracy Fields Spring Israel Oil Treated Ties Knots Arab World Arab Spring Oil Field

Author:Nicholas D. Kristof

“The first thing I can remember I ever wanted was to go to the United States. And for reasons that are as conventional as you can imagine: I wanted to know if it was really true that it was the land of opportunity, of democracy, and individual liberty.”

Source: Christopher Hitchens: The Last Interview: and Other Conversations

“There is still another inconvenieney in conquests made by democracies; their government is ever odious to the conquered states. It is apparently monarchical, but in reality it is more oppressive than monarchy, as the experience of all ages and countries evinces.”

Made Stills Country States Reality Government Age Democracy Conquest Monarchy

Author:Baron de Montesquieu

“We know that communism is the right hypothesis. All those who abandon this hypothesis immediately resign themselves to the market economy, to parliamentary democracy-the form of state suited to capitalism-and to the inevitable and 'natural' character of the most monstrous inequalities.”

Knows States Character Form Natural Economy Democracy Capitalism Inequality Communism Inevitable Abandon Hypothesis Monstrous Market Economy Parliamentary Parliamentary Democracy

Author:Alain Badiou

“The great ideas of the West - rationalism, self-criticism, the disinterested search for truth, the separation of church and state, the rule of law, equality before the law, freedom of conscience, thought, and expression, human rights, and liberal democracy- quite an achievement, surely, for any civilization- - remain the best, and perhaps the only, means for all people, no matter of what race or creed, to reach their full potential and live in freedom.”

Source: Virgins? What Virgins?: And Other Essays

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