Best 3411 quotes in «democracy quotes» category

[Lighting a cigarette] Well, I'm not here to impinge on anybody else's lifestyle. If I'm in a place where I know I'm going to harm somebody's health or somebody asks me to please not smoke, I just go outside and smoke. But I do resent the way the nonsmoking mentality has been imposed on the smoking minority. Because, first of all, in a democracy, minorities do have rights. And, second, the whole pitch about smoking has gone from being a health issue to a moral issue, and when they reduce something to a moral issue, it has no place in any kind of legislation, as far as I'm concerned.

Like an odorless gas, [inequality] pervades every corner of the United States and saps the strength of the country's democracy. But it seems impossible to find the source and shut it off.

Lincoln's reference to government of the people, by the people, for the people is a generally satisfactory definition of democracy. I say generally because when it comes to fair and workable details, democracy fails to completely meet the criteria enunciated by Lincoln by a rather wide margin.

Lincoln, they used to talk about him almost as bad as they talk about me. So democracy has never been for the faint of heart.

Lokmanya Tilak said "Swaraj is my birthright" but now the people of India must say, "Surajya is my birthright".

Looking at polls of Arab public opinion, you look at popular figures, the most popular figure is the prime minister of Turkey, Erdogan, and then it goes down the list. You get Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, you don't get Obama, or in fact any western leader. The public doesn't want the whole imperial project. So if you had democracy, it would be all over.

Look, there is parliamentary democracy in most European countries, there is parliamentary democracy in Japan, there is parliamentary democracy in many countries, but in the United States, for some reason, the State is organized differently, there is quite a stringent presidential republic.

Love of the republic in a democracy, is a love of the democracy; love of the democracy is that of equality. Love of the democracy is likewise that of frugality.

Loyalty to the true, core values and roots of democracy is what makes a true patriot, not loyalty to a symbol of the country.

Lynch mobs are democracies.

Lyndon Johnson believed the poor deserved a better life than the economy was providing them. He thought private power and greed had to be checked by a vibrant democracy.

Maintain democracy or go to dictatorship: that is what is at stake in these elections.

Majority rule rests on numbers; democracy rests on the well-grounded assumption that society is neither a collection of units nor an organism but a network of human relations.

Many Americans do not realize that we could institute proportional representation for most elections in the U.S. without amending the Constitution. In helping to educate the public about the potential for voting system reform, CVD can play a central role in a pro-democracy movement right here in America!

Mandela's commitment to democracy was ratified not only by his election, but by his willingness to step down from power

Many of the democratization projects are a real threat to real democracy.

Many who have voted for the AfD, or who intend to do so, aren't doing so because they are dyed-in-the-wool enemies of democracy. Rather, they are desperate.

Many people are alienated by faceless bureaucracy and what they see as an erosion of participatory democracy. Consequently, there has been a revival of interest in charitable service.

Marginalized youth, workers, artists and others are raising serious questions about the violence of inequality and the social order that legitimates it. They are calling for a redistribution of wealth and power - not within the old system, but in a new one in which democracy becomes more than a slogan or a legitimation for authoritarianism and state violence.

Marriage is a partnership, not a democracy.

Marriage is like democracy - it doesn't really work, but it's all we've been able to come up with.

Masculine republics give way to feminine democracies, and feminine democracies give way to tyranny.

Mass democracy guarantees stupidity. Masses of people, even if they're individually intelligent, can only act stupidly.

Mexico has relied on television for decades to keep the citizens misinformed and in a constant state of stupor. I mean we live in a time where democracy is almost synonymous with oligarchy.

May God be with you and the Devil be crushed underfoot as you march for Peace on the skulls of our enemies, for goodwill, security, and a quality of life that comes only with Democracy

Mexico has become a robust democracy with a robust press and an active legislature. It has gone from being a sending country for migrants to a transit country, and increasingly a receiving country for migrants in its own right.

May you have the income of a Republican and the sex life of a Democrat!

Millions around the world increasingly see America not as a model of democracy but as relying solely on brute force.

Monarchy hardens into despotism. Aristocracy contracts into oligarchy. Democracy expands into the supremacy of numbers.

Modesty and reverence are no less virtues of freemen than the democratic feeling which will submit neither to arrogance nor to servility.

Monarchy degenerates into tyranny, aristocracy into oligarchy, and democracy into savage violence and chaos.

Money originated with royalty and slavery, it has nothing to do with democracy or the struggle of the empoverished enslaved majority.

Money will cease to be master and become the servant of humanity. Democracy will rise superior to the money power.

Most faults are not in our Constitution, but in ourselves.

More often than not "fair" and "balanced" may be mutually exclusive

More socialism means more democracy, openness and collectivism in everyday life.

Most bands don't work out. A small unit democracy is very, very difficult.

Most liberal democracies don't try to figure out what the truth is.

Moreover, as we live in an era of the ascendancy of democracy and human rights, we must see that Taiwan has been a vibrant democracy with a democratically elected president and legislature.

More than poverty, more than degree of education, religion, access to natural resources, even degree of democracy - violence against females is the biggest indicator of whether a country will be violent in itself or be willing to use military violence against another country.

Most of ideologies are not based on the individual - no matter what they say. There are these peoples' democracies, nationalism - they're all dictatorships. And I think any kind of dictatorship is bad for the individual.

Most of the poverty and misery in the world is due to bad government, lack of democracy, weak states, internal strife, and so on.

[Most progressive in the Democratic Party] won't stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership or take a position against it, you know, which is an absolute assault on our democracy.

Mr. Speaker, democracy works best when the American electorate is engaged and informed.

Mr Jefferson meant that the American system should be a democracy, and he would rather have let the whole world perish than that this principle, which to him represented all that man was worth, should fail. Mr Hamilton considered democracy a fatal curse, and meant to stop its progress.

Music has as many roles as people make it. I traveled to Burma once years ago to witness the people's struggle for democracy, meet some people and learn some stuff. And I had this incredible experience over and over again in the Burmese jungle or refugee camps or health clinics with very oppressed, very devastated people. I show up, and I'm white and I'm American and I'm privileged and I have an experience that these people can't fathom and vice versa. There was this huge chasm when I met people for all good reasons.

My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.

My life had been defined by the apartheid years. Now we were going into an era of democracy... and I believed that I didn't have really a function as an artist, as a useful artist, in that anymore.

My definition of secularism is very clear. The sole religion of the Government is Nation First, the holy book is the Constitution.

My favorite forgotten President in American history is James Buchanan, who in defending really robust and sharp-elbowed debates said, "I like the noise of democracy. I like the sound of people in the streets making noise.