Best quotes of democracy,political parties,democracy quotes,about democracy,constitution,why democracy.
Democracy
The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority.
-Lord (John Emerich Edward Dalberg) Acton
"Remember,democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes,exhausts,and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. The jaws of power are always open to devour,and her arm is always stretched out,if possible,to destroy the freedom of thinking,speaking,and writing. Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the People,who have... a right,an indisputable,unalienable,indefeasible,divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge,I mean the characters and conduct of their rulers. There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free 'government' ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty. Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among people."
-John Adams
"So long as we have enough people in this country willing to fight for their rights,we'll be called a democracy."
-Roger Baldwin
In a democracy the majority of citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority...and that oppression of the majority will extend to far great number,and will be carried on with much greater fury,than can almost ever be apprehended from the dominion of a single sceptre. Under a cruel prince they have the plaudits of the people to animate their generous constancy under their sufferings; but those who are subjected to wrong under multitudes are deprived of all external consolation: they seem deserted by mankind,overpowered by a conspiracy of their whole species.
-Edmund Burke,Reflections on the Revolution in France,1790
No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all wise. Indeed,it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.
-Sir Winston Churchill,Speech in the House of Commons,November 11,1947
At the bottom of all the tributes paid to democracy is the little man walking into the little booth with a little pencil,making a little cross on a little bit of paper. No amount of rhetoric or voluminous discussion can possibly diminish the overwhelming importance of that point.
-Sir Winston Churchill
"It is a besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law. This is the usual form in which masses of men exhibit their tyranny."
-James Fenimore Cooper
"The tendency of democracies is,in all things,to mediocrity."
-James Fenimore Cooper
"Democracy consists of choosing your dictators,after they've told you what it is you want to hear."
-Alan Coren
"In a democracy dissent is an act of faith. Like medicine,the test of its value is not in its taste,but in its effects."
-J. William Fulbright
Democracy! Bah! When I hear that word I reach for my feather Boa!
-Allen Ginsberg
I swear to the Lord
I still can't see
Why Democracy means
Everybody but me.
-Langston Hughes,The Black Man Speaks
It is the common failing of totalitarian regimes that they cannot really understand the nature of our democracy. They mistake dissent for disloyalty. They mistake restlessness for a rejection of policy. They mistake a few committees for a country. They misjudge individual speeches for public policy.
-Lyndon B. Johnson,Answering North Vietnamese charge that US could not endure a long,inconclusive war,address at San Antonio,Texas,September 29,1967
"...Government of the people,by the people,for the people,shall not perish from the Earth."
-Abraham Lincoln,Gettysburg Address,November 19,1863
"As I would not be a slave,so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy."
-Abraham Lincoln
We go by the major vote,and if the majority are insane,the sane must go to the hospital.
-Horace Mann
"If all mankind minus one were of one opinion,mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he,if he had the power,would be justified in silencing mankind."
-John Stuart Mill
"The legacy of Democrats and Republicans approaches: Libertarianism by bankruptcy."
-Nick Nuessle
Authority has always attracted the lowest elements in the human race. All through history mankind has been bullied by scum. Those who lord it over their fellows and toss commands in every direction and would boss the grass in the meadow about which way to bend in the wind are the most depraved kind of prostitutes. They will submit to any indignity,perform any vile act,do anything to achieve power. The worst off-sloughings of the planet are the ingredients of sovereignty. Every government is a parliament of whores. The trouble is,in a democracy the whores are us.
-P. J. O'Rourke
“Democracy is a team sport. It is not like going to a ballgame where you sit passively and decide if you like the players and evaluate their abilities after watching the game. We are the players,we are the team,in a democratic nation or a democratic world.”
-John Renesch
"The ballot is stronger than bullets."
-Joseph Schumpeter,Capitalism,Socialism and Democracy
Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.
-George Bernard Shaw,Man and Superman,"The Revolutionist's Handbook"
"Apparently,a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates."
-Gore Vidal
Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half the time.
-E.B. (Elwyn Brooks) White,New Yorker,July 3,1944
"I say that democracy can never prove itself beyond cavil,until it founds and luxuriantly grows its own forms of art,poems,schools,theology,displacing all that exists,or that has been produced anywhere in the past,under opposite influences."
-Walt Whitman,Democratic Vistas
Democracy,finally,rests on a higher power than Parliament. It rests on an informed and cultivated and alert public opinion. The Members of Parliament are only representatives of the citizens. They cannot represent apathy and indifference. They can play the part allotted to them only if they represent intelligence and public spiritness.
-Dr. Eric Eustace Williams,Speech,First day of Trinidad and Tobago's independence from Great Britain.,August 31,1962
-Lord (John Emerich Edward Dalberg) Acton
"Remember,democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes,exhausts,and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. The jaws of power are always open to devour,and her arm is always stretched out,if possible,to destroy the freedom of thinking,speaking,and writing. Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the People,who have... a right,an indisputable,unalienable,indefeasible,divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge,I mean the characters and conduct of their rulers. There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free 'government' ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty. Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among people."
-John Adams
"So long as we have enough people in this country willing to fight for their rights,we'll be called a democracy."
-Roger Baldwin
In a democracy the majority of citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority...and that oppression of the majority will extend to far great number,and will be carried on with much greater fury,than can almost ever be apprehended from the dominion of a single sceptre. Under a cruel prince they have the plaudits of the people to animate their generous constancy under their sufferings; but those who are subjected to wrong under multitudes are deprived of all external consolation: they seem deserted by mankind,overpowered by a conspiracy of their whole species.
-Edmund Burke,Reflections on the Revolution in France,1790
No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all wise. Indeed,it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.
-Sir Winston Churchill,Speech in the House of Commons,November 11,1947
At the bottom of all the tributes paid to democracy is the little man walking into the little booth with a little pencil,making a little cross on a little bit of paper. No amount of rhetoric or voluminous discussion can possibly diminish the overwhelming importance of that point.
-Sir Winston Churchill
"It is a besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law. This is the usual form in which masses of men exhibit their tyranny."
-James Fenimore Cooper
"The tendency of democracies is,in all things,to mediocrity."
-James Fenimore Cooper
"Democracy consists of choosing your dictators,after they've told you what it is you want to hear."
-Alan Coren
"In a democracy dissent is an act of faith. Like medicine,the test of its value is not in its taste,but in its effects."
-J. William Fulbright
Democracy! Bah! When I hear that word I reach for my feather Boa!
-Allen Ginsberg
I swear to the Lord
I still can't see
Why Democracy means
Everybody but me.
-Langston Hughes,The Black Man Speaks
It is the common failing of totalitarian regimes that they cannot really understand the nature of our democracy. They mistake dissent for disloyalty. They mistake restlessness for a rejection of policy. They mistake a few committees for a country. They misjudge individual speeches for public policy.
-Lyndon B. Johnson,Answering North Vietnamese charge that US could not endure a long,inconclusive war,address at San Antonio,Texas,September 29,1967
"...Government of the people,by the people,for the people,shall not perish from the Earth."
-Abraham Lincoln,Gettysburg Address,November 19,1863
"As I would not be a slave,so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy."
-Abraham Lincoln
We go by the major vote,and if the majority are insane,the sane must go to the hospital.
-Horace Mann
"If all mankind minus one were of one opinion,mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he,if he had the power,would be justified in silencing mankind."
-John Stuart Mill
"The legacy of Democrats and Republicans approaches: Libertarianism by bankruptcy."
-Nick Nuessle
Authority has always attracted the lowest elements in the human race. All through history mankind has been bullied by scum. Those who lord it over their fellows and toss commands in every direction and would boss the grass in the meadow about which way to bend in the wind are the most depraved kind of prostitutes. They will submit to any indignity,perform any vile act,do anything to achieve power. The worst off-sloughings of the planet are the ingredients of sovereignty. Every government is a parliament of whores. The trouble is,in a democracy the whores are us.
-P. J. O'Rourke
“Democracy is a team sport. It is not like going to a ballgame where you sit passively and decide if you like the players and evaluate their abilities after watching the game. We are the players,we are the team,in a democratic nation or a democratic world.”
-John Renesch
"The ballot is stronger than bullets."
-Joseph Schumpeter,Capitalism,Socialism and Democracy
Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.
-George Bernard Shaw,Man and Superman,"The Revolutionist's Handbook"
"Apparently,a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates."
-Gore Vidal
Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half the time.
-E.B. (Elwyn Brooks) White,New Yorker,July 3,1944
"I say that democracy can never prove itself beyond cavil,until it founds and luxuriantly grows its own forms of art,poems,schools,theology,displacing all that exists,or that has been produced anywhere in the past,under opposite influences."
-Walt Whitman,Democratic Vistas
Democracy,finally,rests on a higher power than Parliament. It rests on an informed and cultivated and alert public opinion. The Members of Parliament are only representatives of the citizens. They cannot represent apathy and indifference. They can play the part allotted to them only if they represent intelligence and public spiritness.
-Dr. Eric Eustace Williams,Speech,First day of Trinidad and Tobago's independence from Great Britain.,August 31,1962