Democracy Quotes - page 13

Democracy is a system in which heads are counted but not weighed. (Muhammad Iqbal)
I have wanted to give Iraq a lesson in democracy - because we're experienced with it, you know. And, in democracy, after a hundred years, you have to let your slaves go. And, after a hundred and fifty years, you have to let your women vote. And, at the beginning of democracy, is that quite a bit of genocide and ethnic cleansing is quite okay. And that's what's going on now. View quote
Kurt Vonnegut
There is a reason for the affected profession of "anarchist sympathies" among Tories and grandees, and of "libertarian principles" by Hobbesian yahoos of the right. Among the former, one sees the upholding of the view that a gentleman's business and property are his own, and none of the government's. Among the latter, a distaste for democracy, for taxation, and for the need to consult others about the planet. View quote
Christopher Hitchens
In a really equal democracy, every or any section would be represented, not disproportionately, but proportionately. ... Unless they are, there is not equal government, but a government of inequality and privilege: one part of the people rule over the rest: there is a part whose fair and equal share of influence in the representation is withheld from them, contrary to all just government, but, above all, contrary to the principle of democracy, which professes equality as its very root and foundation. View quote
John Stuart Mill
Our people do not want barren theories from their democracy. Maury Maverick has expressed very quaintly, but clearly, what they really want when he says: 'We Americans want to talk, pray, think as we please - and eat regular. View quote
Robert H. Jackson
Democracy may become frenzied, but it has feelings and can be moved. As for aristocracy, it is always cold and never forgives. View quote
Napoleon Bonaparte
Where are the real sources of human dignity, freedom and modern democracy, if not in the concept of infinity to which all men are equal? View quote
Louis Pasteur
For us, democracy is a question of human dignity. This includes the political liberties, the right to freely express our views, the right to criticize and to influence opinion. It embraces the right to health and work, to education and social security. View quote
Olof Palme
When public men indulge themselves in abuse, when they deny others a fair trial, when they resort to innuendo and insinuation, to libel, scandal, and suspicion, then our democratic society is outraged, and democracy is baffled. View quote
J. William Fulbright
If you care for the quality of life in our American democracy, then you have to be for censorship. View quote
Irving Kristol
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. (Moses I. Finley)
My interest is, my one hobby is, maintaining a democracy. If you get these 500,000 soldiers advocating anything smelling of Fascism, I am going to get 500,000 more and lick the hell out of you, and we will have a real war right at home. View quote
Smedley Butler
Through money, democracy becomes its own destroyer, after money has destroyed intellect. View quote
Oswald Spengler
Democracy is not compatible with financial oligarchy, with discrimination against Blacks and outrages by the Ku Klux Klan. View quote
Che Guevara
We should not allow the word "democracy" to be utilized apologetically to represent the dictatorship of the exploiting classes. View quote
Che Guevara
The vision I would like to see here is the entrenching of the Jewish and the Zionist state. I very much favor democracy, but when there is a contradiction between democratic and Jewish values, the Jewish and Zionist values are more important. View quote
Avigdor Lieberman
The democracy which shows up in the United States and in England is not an ideal democracy, because the will of the people is under the pressure of property, which is in the hands of the wealthy capitalists. View quote
Hans Fritzsche
Here is the crisis of the times as I see it: We talk about problems, issues, policies, but we don't talk about what democracy means - what it bestows on us - the revolutionary idea that it isn't just about the means of governance but the means of dignifying people so they become fully free to claim their moral and political agency. View quote
Bill Moyers
America's corporate and political elites now form a regime of their own and they're privatizing democracy. All the benefits - the tax cuts, policies and rewards flow in one direction: up. View quote
Bill Moyers
We all know that election reform takes time. That's because those who have benefited from the system are the ones who fight hardest to preserve it. So if we're going to succeed, we need an independent coalition of citizens who believe in reform, who believe that our election laws should treat every voter equally, who believe that low levels of competition and participation are not healthy for democracy. The Independence Party is helping to build that coalition and I am happy to join you in doing so. View quote
Michael Bloomberg
A modern, harmonic and lively architecture is the visible sign of an authentic democracy. (Walter Gropius)
Our democracy has been around far longer than European democracy. View quote
Hillary Clinton
I think art has a right-not an obligation-to be difficult if it wishes. And, since people generally go on from this to talk about elitism versus democracy, I would add that genuinely difficult art is truly democratic. View quote
Geoffrey Hill
The gentlemen who wrote the Constitution were as suspicious of efficient government as they were wary of democracy, a "turbulence and a folly" that was associated with the unruly ignorance of an urban mob. View quote
Lewis H. Lapham
Democracy! Bah! When I hear that I reach for my feather boa! View quote
Allen Ginsberg