decisive step in the development of democracy.

Don’t let your next decision threaten the world’s peace.

In an effort to eliminate the possibility of any rival growing up, some monopolists would sacrifice democracy itself.

Sometimes it seems that everybody in the world is in favor of democracy, just as long as it gives them the result they want.

say” that the citizen has in ruling himself is due to the goodwill and the honesty of those to whom he has entrusted the power to rule him.

The major western democracies are moving towards corporatism. Democracy has become a business plan, with a bottom line for every human activity, every dream, every decency, every hope. The main parliamentary parties are now devoted...

The first thing a man will do for his ideals is lie.

Americans, the eyes of the world are upon you. How can you expect the world to believe in you and respect your preaching of democracy when you yourself treat your colored brothers as you do?

How does paying people more money make you more money?It works like this. The more you pay your workers, the more they spend. Remember, they’re not just your workers- they’re your consumers, too. The more...

Democracy cannot be built on revenge and you will not have the support of the world if you are intolerant and take the law into your own hands,

In a democracy the people choose a leader in whom they trust. Then the chosen leader says, ‘Now shut up and obey me.’ People and party are then no longer free to interfere in his...

Rebecca was an academic star. Her new book was on the phenomenon of word casings, a term she’d invented for words that no longer had meaning outside quotation marks. English was full of these empty...

In diesem Jahr ging es darum, eine Politik zu beenden, für die der Soziologe Ulrich Beck den durchaus bewundernd gemeinten Begriff des »Merkiavellismus« gefunden hatte. Eine Politik, die ihre Ziele nicht benennt und auch nicht...

Sense isn’t democratic. A senseless opinion that’s advocated by ‘the majority’ is still senseless.

He wanted to see how the people [feel] about democracy and the war in Iraq. When he heard my negative response, he decided to take things in his own hands, I guess.

There are ways to pursue political change. In a democracy, it’s through the ballot box. There are other ways, and many democracies have many different systems of democracy.

Secrecy begets tyranny.

…the majority in a democracy has no more right to tyrannize over a minority than, under a different system, the latter would to oppress the former.

Obama is cutting back on the idea that we’re going to have Jeffersonian democracy in Pakistan or anywhere else.

Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.”[The One Un-American Act, Speech to the Author’s Guild Council...

A central claim of the Bush administration’s foreign policy is that the spread of democracy in the Middle East is the cure for terrorism.

Nothing is more necessary to the culture of the higher sciences, or of the more elevated departments of science, than meditation; and nothing is less suited to meditation than the structure of democratic society.

People in so many countries look up to the United States as a model of democracy, but I doubt if that can continue. It leaves me with a great sense of loss.

It is an old and wise caution, that when our neighbor’s house is on fire, we ought to take care of our own. For tho’, blessed be God, I live in a government where liberty...

In 1870, came the victory of the short-service troops of Prussia over the long-service troops of France, where conscription had but recently been reintroduced in a partial form and as a supplementary measure. That obvious...

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.

despite the intention of the terrorists … and deliver Iraq’s message of peace, democracy and human rights.

Time is the ultimate democracy. Rich and poor, young and old, male and female: all have 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week.

It is difficult for the ordinary voter to come to grips with the notion that a truly evil man, a truthless monster with the brains of a king rat and the soul of a cockroach,...

Every single empire in its official discourse has said that it is not like all the others, that its circumstances are special, that it has a mission to enlighten, civilize, bring order and democracy, and...

Democracy gives every man the right to be his own oppressor.

Both groups [of pundits] were critics, and that is the heart of the problem. If you are a pundit, you seem so smart when you are telling the President what he did wrong… This [is]...

The ruling power is always faced with the question, ‘In such and such circumstances, what would you do?’, whereas the opposition is not obliged to take responsibility or make any real decisions.

in recognition of his musical genius, which evoked aesthetically the principles of democracy through the medium of jazz and thus made an indelible contribution to art and culture.

Democracy is always an unfinished experiment, testing the capacity of each generation to live freedom nobly.

Charity is today a ‘political charity.’. . . it means the transformation of a society structured to benefit a few who appropriate to themselves the value of the work of others. This transformation ought to...

The idea of any blood-thirsty pirate (Mexican President Diaz) sitting on a throne and reaching across the border to tromp on our Constitution makes my blood boil.” — Mother Jones

Democracy suits Europeans today partly because it is associated with the triumph of capitalism and partly because it involves less commitment or intrusion into their lives than any of the alternatives. Europeans accept democracy because...

Those who believe that liberal democracy and the free market can be defended by the force of law and regulation alone, without an internalised sense of duty and morality, are tragically mistaken.

[There] are people who make a complete and utter mockery of ‘democracy’ and ‘equality’ – they’re the casualties of the primitive rules of competition which run our society, and the welfare state just keeps them...

To safeguard democracy the people must have a keen sense of independence, self-respect and their oneness, and should insist upon choosing as their representatives only such persons as are good and true.

For me, Westernization is not about consuming fanciful goods; it’s about a system of free speech, democracy, egalitarianism and respect for the people’s rights and dignity.

I regard freedom of expression as the primary right without which one can not have a proper functioning democracy.

High hopes were once formed of democracy; but democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.

One only knows the sins of democracy against virtue when one is worthy enough to suffer from them.

it is the people who control the Government, not the Government the people.

Electorates tend to get the politicians they deserve.

Poor women enter politics with great difficulty. The duty of the fourth pillar of democracy – the media – is to protect such people but the owner of the newspaper misused his newspaper and even...

The bottom line is that our government is not intelligent about how it pursues the public interest, because its decisions are not informed decisions (and its interest is generally not the public’s).

When the Chief Justice read me the oath,’ he [FDR] later told an adviser, ‘and came to the words “support the Constitution of the United States” I felt like saying: “Yes, but it’s the Constitution...