Democracy Quotes - page 100

The Shah described the modernisation of Iran as the principal goal of his life, and yet he adamantly refused to see that there could be no veritable modernisation without democracy. He often referred to his Swiss education as part of his credentials as a profoundly committed democrat, but was, at the same time, convinced that Iran was not yet ripe for democracy, and that it was his duty as 'the father of the nation' to save the Iranians from a slothful life of prayer, pilgrimage, small commerce, backward farming and cottage industry. He also wanted to turn Iran into a second Japan, make her one of the five or six major world powers by the end of the century. He regarded himself as the custodian of Iran's grandeur and freedom and in later years he extended his self-proclaimed mission of saving Iran to include the entire world. (Amir Taheri)
Britain, which in the years immediately before this war was rapidly losing such democratic virtues as it possessed, is now being bombed and burned into democracy. View quote
J. B. Priestley
One could always do more, faster and cleverer, but democracy has its own rhythm. View quote
Lech Wałęsa
I am happy that Poland is returning to the road of pluralism and democracy. View quote
Lech Wałęsa
Democracy is made up of three elements. One is whether the laws support pluralistic principles. The second is whether the people take advantage of these laws. The third element is whether the peoples' wallets are thick enough to benefit from this democracy. View quote
Lech Wałęsa
The House Rules Committee is perhaps the free world's outstanding bureaucratic abomination - a tiny, airless closet deep in the labyrinth of the Capitol where some of the very meanest people on earth spend their days cleaning democracy like a fish. View quote
Matt Taibbi
Most of wars or military coups or invasions are done in the name of democracy against democracy. View quote
Eduardo Galeano
They're not going, sir. Not going South." "And who made that decision, Sergeant?" "We all did, sir." "Since when, Sergeant, has this army been a... a democracy?" "A what, sir?" "Since when did Sergeants outrank Lieutenants? View quote
Bernard Cornwell
All the glory and the valor and the splendor of a royal world are about to become commonplace and tawdry. All the nasty, mean things-republicanism, democracy, equality-are crawling into the light and claiming that they can replace a lineage of great kings. We are seeing the end of history, Sharpe, and the beginnings of chaos, but maybe, just maybe, King Ferdinand's household guard can bring the curtain down with one last act of shining glory. View quote
Bernard Cornwell
Democracy is that form of society, no matter what its political classification, in which every man has a chance and knows that he has it. View quote
James Russell Lowell
Democracy in its best sense is merely the letting in of light and air. (James Russell Lowell)
I have hinted that what people are afraid of in democracy is less the thing itself than what they conceive to be its necessary adjuncts and consequences. View quote
James Russell Lowell
The framers of the American Constitution were far from wishing or intending to found a democracy in the strict sense of the word, though, as was inevitable, every expansion of the scheme of government they elaborated has been in a democratical direction. View quote
James Russell Lowell
The United States of America will become the United States of Banana. And Puerto Rico will be the first half-and-half banana republic state incorporated that will secede from the union. Then will come Liberty Island, then Mississippi Burning, Texas BBQ, Kentucky Fried Chicken-all of them-New York Yankees, Jersey Devils-you name it-will want to break apart-and demand a separation-a divorce. Things will not go well for the banana republic when the shackles and chains of democracy break loose and unleash the dogs of war. Separation-divorce-disintegration of subject matters that don't matter anymore-only verbs-actions. Americans will walk like chickens with their heads cut off. View quote
Giannina Braschi
The thing about democracy, beloveds, is that it is not neat, orderly, or quiet. It requires a certain relish for confusion. View quote
Molly Ivins
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. View quote
Samantha Power
The most precious thing that democracy gives to us is freedom. You and I cannot escape the fact that the ultimate responsibility for freedom is personal. Our freedoms today are not so much in danger because people are consciously trying to take them away from us as they are in danger because we forget to use them. Freedom unexercised may be freedom forfeited. The preservation of freedom is in the hands of the people themselves - not of the government. View quote
Margaret Chase Smith
One of the evils of democracy is, you have to put up with the man you elect whether you want him or not. View quote
Will Rogers
Democracy has many enemies, and the terrorist is only one of them. View quote
Paul Johnson
Loyalty to the true, core values and roots of democracy is what makes a true patriot, not loyalty to a symbol of the country. View quote
Cindy Sheehan
Without access to the varied forms of education suitable for every individual temperament and every class of worker, the potential for continued growth and securing an authentically functional democracy in the United States decreased considerably. More than a means to a substantial paycheck, both education and satisfying work were the means to a substantial character. (Aberjhani)
Certainly with the enslavement of their parents and grandparents less than seventy years behind them, the odds of successfully utilizing black culture to better refine the application of democracy in America was against them. Yet the planners and participants in this would-be renaissance moved forward with all the faith and visionary certainty of Betsy Ross stitching the American flag or General William T. Sherman blazing a trail of victory through the Civil War South. View quote
Aberjhani
Whereas it might be erroneous to claim that the literature, art, and music of the Harlem Renaissance revolutionized the practice of democracy in the United States, it would not be an error to point out that the ideas they championed did impact America's understanding, and subsequently its application, of democracy. View quote
Aberjhani
A strategic use of black culture could help generate a more efficient use of American democracy,and democracy more effectively practiced could then produce a genuinely spiritual nation of people. View quote
Aberjhani
I think integration in Norway is, by all standards, going relatively well. People are working, taking education, learning the language. But, yes, it is a challenge. And democracy and democratic debate has to be open to take that debate openly and not push questions aside. View quote
Jonas Gahr Store