“This leads to a question - if a great many people are for a certain project, is it necessarily right? If the vast majority is for it, is it even more certainly right? This, to be sure, is one of the tricky points of democracy. The minority often turns out to be right, and though one believes in the efficacy of the democratic process, one has also to recognize that the demand of the many for a particular project at a particular time may mean only disaster.” PeopleIfsBelieveMayMeanCertainTurnsProcessDemocracyParticularDemandProjectsMajorityDemocraticDisasterGreat MenMinoritiesTrickyEfficacyDemocratic Process Book:The Roosevelt I Knew Source: The Roosevelt I Knew
“Democracy is essentially a means, a utilitarian device for safeguarding internal peace and individual freedom. As such it is by no means infallible or certain. Nor must we forget that there has often been much more cultural and spiritual freedom under an autocratic rule than under some democracies and it is at least conceivable that under the government of a very homogeneous and doctrinaire majority democratic government might be as oppressive as the worst dictatorship.” MeanGovernmentMightSpiritualCertainIndividualForgetDemocracyWorstMajorityDemocraticInternalsDevicesDictatorshipInfallibleIndividual FreedomUtilitarianSpiritual FreedomDemocratic GovernmentHomogeneousSafeguardingInternal Peace Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
“All of my life I have stayed away from violence and the instruments of violence, and have seen a legal, democratic struggle as the only means to achieve change.” MeanStruggleViolenceAchieveInstrumentsDemocratic Author:Osman Baydemir
“Education is 'the guardian genius of our democracy.' Nothing really means more to our future, not our military defenses, not our missiles or our bombers, not our production economy, not even our democratic system of government. For all of these are worthless if we lack the brain power to support and sustain them.” IfsMeanGovernmentBrainEducationSupportEconomyDemocracyMilitaryGeniusDemocraticProductionsDefenseOur FutureWorthlessGuardianReally MeanMissilesBombersSystems Of GovernmentBrain Power Author:Lyndon B. Johnson
“Reagan's story of freedom superficially alludes to the Founding Fathers, but its substance comes from the Gilded Age, devised by apologists for the robber barons. It is posed abstractly as the freedom of the individual from government control a Jeffersonian ideal at the roots of our Bill of Rights, to be sure. But what it meant in politics a century later, and still means today, is the freedom to accumulate wealth without social or democratic responsibilities and license to buy the political system right out from everyone else.” MeanStillsStoriesGovernmentAgeTodayPoliticalFatherIndividualSocialWealthResponsibilityRightsCenturyIdealsRootsBillsDemocraticSubstanceFoundingLicensePolitical SystemsBill Of RightsRobbersGildedGilded AgeRobber Baron Author:Bill Moyers
“But progress in knowledge has made us aware of the superficiality of Plato's lumping of individuals and their original powers into a few sharply marked-off classes; it has taught us that original capacities are indefinitely numerous and variable. It is but the other side of this fact to say that in the degree in which society has become democratic, social organization means utilization of the specific and variable qualities of individuals, not stratification by classes.” MeanMadeFactsIndividualSocialSidesQualityClassProgressTaughtDegreesCapacityOrganizationOriginalsDemocraticPlatoTaught UsVariablesSuperficialityPlato SSocial OrganizationUtilization Book:Democracy And Education Source: Democracy And Education
“Historicism and cultural relativism actually are a means to avoid testing our own prejudices and asking, for example, whether men are really equal or whether that opinion is merely a democratic prejudice.” MenMeanOpinionExampleEqualPrejudiceAskingDemocraticTestingRelativismCultural Relativism Book:Closing of the American Mind Source: Closing of the American Mind
“Solidarity is a beautiful word because it means that you reach out to those who are different from you and who have to cope with different circumstances because we recognize that we all share the same human needs and same values. It is the values that count most of all. The value of freedom of thought, the value of democratic practices, the value of respect for your fellow human beings.” NeedsHumansMeanDifferentBeautifulValuesHuman BeingsPracticeShareCircumstancesFellowsDemocraticReach OutSolidarityFreedom Of ThoughtHuman NeedsBeautiful Words Author:Aung San Suu Kyi