Democracy Quotes

Well, you know, too much democracy is a sort of sad thing.

~ Ann Richards

'Solutionism' for me is, above all, an unthinking pursuit of perfection - by means of technology - without coming to grips with the fact that imperfection is an essential feature of liberal democracy.

~ Evgeny Morozov

Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.

~ George Bernard Shaw

It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.

~ Winston Churchill

The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy.

~ Woodrow Wilson

A pure democracy is a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person.

~ James Madison

Democracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they are the powers that ought to be.

~ Sydney J. Harris

On account of being a democracy and run by the people, we are the only nation in the world that has to keep a government four years, no matter what it does.

~ Will Rogers

In our system of democracy, our government works on a system of checks and balances. Instead of stripping power from the courts, I believe we should follow the process prescribed in our Constitution - consideration of a Constitutional amendment.

~ Dennis Cardoza

Democracy passes into despotism.

~ Plato

While democracy in the long run is the most stable form of government, in the short run, it is among the most fragile.

~ Madeleine Albright

Judicial review has been a part of our democracy in this constitutional government for over 200 years.

~ Ron Kind

Democracy is an abuse of statistics.

~ Jorge Luis Borges

Democracy must learn to defend itself.

~ Mikhail Gorbachev

We must remember that democracy works when given time to develop, mature and deliver. People must have access to information for informed debate. Government institutions must treat citizens fairly, and with dignity, while responding to their needs.

~ Atifete Jahjaga

Democracy means government by discussion, but it is only effective if you can stop people talking.

~ Clement Attlee

Until the control of the issue of currency and credit is restored to government and recognized as its most conspicuous and sacred responsibility, all talks of the sovereignty of Parliament and of democracy is idle and futile.

~ William Lyon Mackenzie King

Democracy is not so much a form of government as a set of principles.

~ Woodrow Wilson

The soviet people want full-blooded and unconditional democracy.

~ Mikhail Gorbachev

We can't have democracy if we're having to protect you and our users from the government over stuff we've never had a conversation about. We need to know what the parameters are, what kind of surveillance the government is going to do, and how and why.

~ Larry Page

Democracy needs support, and the best support for democracy comes from other democracies.

~ Benazir Bhutto

Here's to democracy. May we get the government we deserve.

~ Rick Mercer

Democracy may not prove in the long run to be as efficient as other forms of government, but it has one saving grace: it allows us to know and say that it isn't.

~ Bill Moyers

I'm tired of hearing it said that democracy doesn't work. Of course it doesn't work. We are supposed to work it.

~ Alexander Woollcott

People are constantly applying double standards. Take the United States, for example. Washington wants the whole world to admire the country for its democracy. Then the government sends out its army, in the name of this democracy, and leaves behind the kind of chaos we see in Iraq.

~ Jacob Zuma

We Americans have the great gifts of freedom and democracy, but it has been our education system that has fulfilled the promise of democracy.

~ James E. Rogers

A constitutional democracy is in serious trouble if its citizenry does not have a certain degree of education and civic virtue.

~ Phillip E. Johnson

Education and democracy have the same goal: the fullest possible development of human capabilities.

~ Paul Wellstone

No party has a monopoly on wisdom. No democracy works without compromise. But when Governor Romney and his allies in Congress tell us we can somehow lower our deficit by spending trillions more on new tax breaks for the wealthy - well, you do the math. I refuse to go along with that. And as long as I'm President, I never will.

~ Barack Obama

Democracy, loudly upheld as a cure for much of the ailing world, has proved no guarantor of political wisdom, even if it remains the least bad form of government.

~ Pankaj Mishra

If we desire a society of peace, then we cannot achieve such a society through violence. If we desire a society without discrimination, then we must not discriminate against anyone in the process of building this society. If we desire a society that is democratic, then democracy must become a means as well as an end.

~ Bayard Rustin

Democracy is necessary to peace and to undermining the forces of terrorism.

~ Benazir Bhutto

The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty.

~ Woodrow Wilson

In Italy, for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, they had 500 years of democracy and peace - and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.

~ Graham Greene

Peace should be understood in a human way - in a broad social, political and economic way. Peace is threatened by unjust economic, social and political order, absence of democracy, environmental degradation and absence of human rights.

~ Muhammad Yunus

Poetry always, always, always is a key piece of democracy.

~ Eileen Myles

Democracy isn't solely about polite conversations in parliaments. It needs to be continually refreshed with raw passions, anger and ideals.

~ Geoff Mulgan

Journalism is what maintains democracy. It's the force for progressive social change.

~ Andrew Vachss

I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy - but that could change.

~ Dan Quayle

The spirit of democracy is not a mechanical thing to be adjusted by abolition of forms. It requires change of heart.

~ Mahatma Gandhi