Democracy Quotes

We need an attitude of defiance, not an attitude of cowardice. Out in the street, that's how we are winning against the TransCanada Pipeline. This is how we have delayed the Trans-Pacific Partnership and forced it into an election season, gotten everybody to stand against it. Democracy is not about surrender.

~ Jill Stein

Our only real hope for democracy is that we get the money out of politics entirely and establish a system of publicly funded elections.

~ Noam Chomsky

The worst thing that can happen in a democracy - as well as in an individual's life - is to become cynical about the future and lose hope.

~ Hillary Clinton

It's true that General Musharraf opposes my return, seeing me as a symbol of democracy in the country. He is comfortable with dictatorship. I hope better sense prevails.

~ Benazir Bhutto

We, as Turkey, call on Europe to respect human rights and democracy.

~ Recep Tayyip Erdogan

I think it is very important for any U.S. administration to be clear that America stands on the side of freedom and democracy and respect for individual rights.

~ Stephen Hadley

If we are to build grassroots respect for the institutions and processes that constitute democracy, the state must treat its citizens as real citizens rather than as subjects.

~ Mo Ibrahim

There is no, and cannot be, any situation in which we don't respect the law and the judiciary. It is unacceptable to attack the courts; criticism is allowed, but attacks are not. It shakes the basis of our democracy.

~ Reuven Rivlin

In a democracy, if you don't get the votes, nothing else is possible, no matter how wonderful your dreams.

~ Helmut Kohl

The Oval Office symbolizes... the Constitution, the hopes and dreams, and I'm going to say democracy. And when you have a dress code in the Supreme Court and a dress code on the floor of the Senate, floor of the House, I think it's appropriate to have an expectation that there will be a dress code that respects the office of the President.

~ Andrew Card

With the end of the cold war, all the 'isms' of the 20th century - Fascism, Nazism, Communism and the evil of apartheid-ism - have failed. Except one. Only democracy has shown itself true the help of all mankind.

~ Jack Kemp

In the name of the rule of law, democracy and human rights, we cannot accept that the rights of individuals (Arab or Muslim) be trampled upon, or that populations are targeted and discriminated against in the name of the war against terrorism.

~ Tariq Ramadan

I was never convinced that war was the best system to bring democracy to the country.

~ Silvio Berlusconi

The war on drugs is not being won, and it continues to threaten stability and democracy not only in the Andes but throughout the Caribbean as well, where tiny police and military forces are outclassed by the sophisticated equipment in the hands of traffickers passing through the region on the way to their market in this country.

~ Elliott Abrams

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.

~ J. B. Priestley

Until democracy in effective enthusiastic action fills the vacuum created by the power of modern inventions, we may expect the fascists to increase in power after the war both in the United States and in the world.

~ Henry A. Wallace

American democracy must be a failure because it places the supreme authority in the hands of the poorest and most ignorant part of the society.

~ Thomas Babington Macaulay

This dullness of vision regarding the importance of the general welfare to the individual is the measure of the failure of our schools and churches to teach the spiritual significance of genuine democracy.

~ Henry A. Wallace

Democracy is interactive... It's a constant job of information, education, explanation, listening, and interactive communication.

~ Dick Gephardt

Whatever your political leaning, vote. This participation is vital. I feel the same way about issues like the space program, education, the military. The more the public focuses on these things, thinks and forms opinions, I think the better we are as a democracy.

~ Ron Howard

To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.

~ Louis L'amour

Journalism is what we need to make democracy work.

~ Walter Cronkite

Celebrity distorts democracy by giving the rich, beautiful, and famous more authority than they deserve.

~ Maureen Dowd

Slowly but surely, we are acquiring that famous culture of democracy, which is our objective.

~ Paul Biya

Corruption is nature's way of restoring our faith in democracy.

~ Peter Ustinov

Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.

~ H. L. Mencken

The theory of relativity worked out by Mr. Einstein, which is in the domain of natural science, I believe can also be applied to the political field. Both democracy and human rights are relative concepts - and not absolute and general.

~ Jiang Zemin

My father was a professor of political science and also a young politician fighting for democracy in Kenya, and when things got ugly, he went into political exile in Mexico.

~ Lupita Nyong'o

As we talk with candour, we open the doors to new possibilities and new areas of cooperation in advance in democracy, in combating terrorism, in energy and environment, science and technology and international peacekeeping.

~ Atal Bihari Vajpayee

I always say the strength of democracy lies in criticism. If there is no criticism, that means there is no democracy. And if you want to grow, you must invite criticism. And I want to grow; I want to invite criticism.

~ Narendra Modi

Indian democracy's greatest strength is that we have always put the nation above politics.

~ Atal Bihari Vajpayee

I gathered as much reading material about Aung San Suu Kyi and about Burma as I could. And I read every article and every book she had written. I also had 200 hours of footage of her to watch. I tried to discover who were her heroes and where he desire and strength to pursue democracy in a non-violent fashion came from.

~ Michelle Yeoh

I think the Iraqi people have shown extraordinary patience and courage in the last few months. They have really put a political system on the way to success, to a real democracy here.

~ Paul Bremer

The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.

~ Robert M. Hutchins

My objection to the death penalty is based on the idea that this is a democracy, and in a democracy the government is me, and if the government kills somebody then I'm killing somebody.

~ Steve Earle

Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.

~ Alexis De Tocqueville

Democracy... is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder; and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.

~ Plato

Political democracy cannot last unless there lies at the base of it social democracy. What does social democracy mean? It means a way of life which recognizes liberty, equality and fraternity as the principles of life.

~ B. R. Ambedkar

If we are to give the people of China complete self-government we must first solve the problem of livelihood for all, and give real freedom to the races within China. If the foundations of democracy are secure, then true equality can be achieved.

~ Chiang Kai-Shek

If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in government to the utmost.

~ Aristotle