Top 100 Liberty Democracy Quotes
#1. The American flag is an enduring symbol of liberty, democracy, and justice. It is fitting that the House act to protect it as we approach our nation's birthday, and as our men and women in uniform rally behind it in Iraq's battlefields.
Joe Barton
#2. And when they do spin out of control there are important ramifications that affect America, not just its direct national interest but its broader interests as a nation which has thought of itself as a beacon to other nations, of freedom, liberty, democracy, whatever.
John Pomfret
#3. For all the enlightened nations that profess a loyalty to liberty, democracy, economy and all the rest, there has long been a readiness to look for a chosen one; as Carlyle pointed out, even the French, those great anti-venerators, those relentless beheaders of Great Men, worshipped Voltaire.
Chris Anderson
#4. Democratic Socialism is simply Totalitarianism that allows you the illusion of a voice in the matter.
A.E. Samaan
#5. Democracy, freedom and liberty do not make us more than what we are; it is our commitment that matters.
M.F. Moonzajer
#6. The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty.
Woodrow Wilson
#7. Egypt had the first constitution in the Middle East that allowed for liberty. And it had democracy.
Ahmed Zewail
#8. The degree of liberty or tyranny in any government is in large degree a reflection of the relative determination of the subjects to be free and their willingness and ability to resist efforts to enslave them.
Gene Sharp
#9. The price of liberty is labor as well as vigilance.
Carl Scovel
#10. Liberty has never lasted long in a democracy, nor has it ever ended in anything better than despotism.
Fisher Ames
#11. Liberty has not only enemies which it conquers, but perfidious friends, who rob the fruits of its victories: Absolute democracy, socialism.
Lord Acton
#12. Liberty and democracy become unholy when their hands are dyed red with innocent blood.
Mahatma Gandhi
#13. Liberty came to the West centuries before democracy. Liberty led to democracy and not the other way around.
Fareed Zakaria
#14. Democracy and liberty are not the same. Democracy is little more than mob rule, while liberty refers to the sovereignty of the individual.
Walter E. Williams
#15. Liberty, freedom and democracy are very fuzzy words, but human rights is very specific.
Joichi Ito
#16. When enough people realize that they are slaves but don't have to be, revolutions happen.
J.S.B. Morse
#17. American and Israel share a special bond. Our relationship is unique among all nations. Like America, Israel is a strong democracy, a symbol of freedom, and an oasis of liberty, a home to the oppressed and persecuted.
William J. Clinton
#18. Since Humanism as a functioning credo is so closely bound up with the methods of reason and science, plainly free speech and democracy are its very lifeblood. For reason and scientific method can flourish only in an atmosphere of civil liberties.
Corliss Lamont
#19. China has to go along with world trends. That's democracy, liberty, individual freedom. China sooner or later has to go that way. It cannot go backward.
Dalai Lama
#20. 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 in New York, on receiving the 1951 Lauterbach Award (December 3, 1952)]
William O. Douglas
#21. He who in given cases consents to obey his fellows with servility, and who submits his will, and even his thoughts, to their control, how can he pretend that he wishes to be free?
Alexis De Tocqueville
#22. Devoid of any real liberty or justice, America and her children had fallen prey to what amounted to little more than a thinly veiled dictatorship. She now represented not the proud citadel of freedom, but the failed experiment of democracy.
Eric J. Martindale
#23. Democracy is in the blood of the Muslims, who look upon complete equality of mankind, and believe in fraternity, equality, and liberty.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah
#24. 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.
#25. The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end.
Leon Trotsky
#26. Democracy is liberty - a liberty which does not infringe on the liberty nor encroach on the rights of others; a liberty which maintains strict discipline, and makes law its guarantee and the basis of its exercise. This alone is true liberty; this alone can produce true democracy.
Chiang Kai-shek
#27. We need to get beyond the politics of the moment, the deficit of the hour, the military count of the day, the numbers that rarely shape events. Our long-term interests must be in people and in the values of democracy and individual liberty.
Bill Bradley
#28. He who would save liberty must put his trust in democracy.
Norman Thomas
#29. In the long and dogged crusade that the human race has fought in favor of democracy, the ideal of liberty, of freedom, has always been the goal.
John Allen Fraser
#30. LIBERTY!
FREEDOM!
DEMOCRACY!
True anyhow no matter how many
Liars use those words.
Langston Hughes
#31. We have proved that the true strength of our nation comes not from the scale of our wealth but from the power of our ideals - opportunity, democracy, liberty and hope.
Barack Obama
#32. Liberty and democracy are eternal enemies, and every one knows it who has ever given any sober reflection to the matter.
H.L. Mencken
#33. It is an axiom in my mind, that our liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people themselves, and that too of the people with a certain degree of instruction. This it is the business of the State to effect, and on a general plan.
Thomas Jefferson
#34. Political democracy cannot flourish under all economic conditions. Democracy requires an economic system which supports the political ideals of liberty and equality for all. Men cannot exercise freedom in the political sphere when they are deprived of it in the economic sphere.
Mortimer Adler
#35. A country that goes out of its way to imprison the innocent has no business preaching democracy to the world.
Paul Craig Roberts
#36. Under observation, we act less free, which means we effectively are less free.
Edward Snowden
#37. Liberty and freedom and democracy are so very precious that you do not fight to win them once and stop. You do not do that. Liberty and freedom and democracy are prizes awarded only to those peoples who fight to win them and then keep fighting eternally to hold them.
H.W. Brands
#38. There was something melancholic about that symbol of their nation's promise of freedom, a bell with a chipped mouth and cleft body.
E.A. Bucchianeri
#39. Our democracy is dependent on people who passionately cherish the ideals of a democracy. Every man is created equal with an inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It's a wonderful idea, and it takes people who cherish that idea to be actively involved in the process.
George Takei
#40. Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty.
John Kennedy Toole
#41. I have an intellectual inclination for democratic institutions, but I am instinctively an aristocrat, which means that I despise and fear the masses. I passionately love liberty, legality, the respect for rights, but not democracy ... liberty is my foremost passion. That is the truth.
Alexis De Tocqueville
#43. It's important to remember that peace, liberty and freedom changes many aspects in our thoughts as far as life is concerned.
Auliq Ice
#44. Under democracy, individual liberty of opinion and action is jealously guarded.
Mahatma Gandhi
#45. To bring about government by oligarchy, masquerading as democracy, it is fundamentally essential that practically all authority and control be centralized in our Federal government ... The individual sovereignty of our states must first be destroyed.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
#46. The case for trade is not just monetary, but moral. Economic freedom creates habits of liberty. And habits of liberty create expectations of democracy.
George W. Bush
#47. Former Secretary (Hillary) Clinton has dedicated her life to serving and engaging people across the world in democracy. These efforts as a citizen, an activist, and a leader have earned Secretary Clinton this year's Liberty Medal.
Jeb Bush
#48. The measure of man's ability to extend the sphere of social possibility can only start with the values of democracy.
Auliq Ice
#49. Very few people really care about freedom, about liberty, about the truth, very few. Very few people have guts, the kind of guts on which a real democracy has to depend. Without people with that sort of guts a free society dies or cannot be born.
Doris Lessing
#50. The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.
H.L. Mencken
#51. The fact that so many successful politicians are such shameless liars is not only a reflection on them, it is also a reflection on us. When the people want the impossible, only liars can satisfy.
Thomas Sowell
#52. I confess to considerable doubts about the eventual stability of democracy, unless buttressed by constitutional safeguards and a general climate of opinion which thoroughly understands the case for liberty in general
Lionel Robbins, Baron Robbins
#53. The Western world, the free world, loses what it cherishes most, and that is freedom and liberty we've seen for a couple of hundred years in this grand experiment that we call democracy.
Tommy Franks
#54. We are in this business, whether it be intelligence or the government, to protect freedom, democracy and liberty, not to violate that.
John O. Brennan
#55. I can't think of anything that would do more toward putting us back on the road to liberty and personal responsibility than for the average American, and for the news media, to come to the understanding that we are not a democracy, nor were we supposed to be.
Neal Boortz
#56. Democracy rests upon two pillars: one, the principle that all men are equally entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; and the other, the conviction that such equal opportunity will most advance civilization.
Louis D. Brandeis
#57. democracy without real patriotism moves toward the destruction of the ordered liberty bequeathed to us by the founders.
Eric Metaxas
#58. The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it. Only if every single citizen feels duty bound to do his share in this defense are the constitutional rights secure.
Albert Einstein
#59. President George Washington's namesake capital, once a marketplace for slave auctions, is now synonymous with democracy and freedom; so is the iconic Jefferson, who wanted to build an "Empire of Liberty" for the world.
Patrick Mendis
#60. Real liberty is neither found in despotism or the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments.
Alexander Hamilton
#61. Democracy without respect for individual rights sucks. It's just ganging up against the weird kid, and I'm always the weird kid.
Penn Jillette
#62. What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty or democracy?
Mahatma Gandhi
#63. Liberty in Islam is the liberty to be a Muslim, democracy likewise, individualism likewise.
James Buchan
#64. Balancing the common good with the freedom and liberty to exercise that individuality has been and remains a challenge for those committed to democracy while understanding that the polis ensures our participation and therefore our citizenship.
David Blunkett
#65. Libraries are the mainstays of democracy. The first thing dictators do when taking over a country is close all the libraries, because libraries are full of ideas and differences of opinion, all the things we say we want in a free and open society. So keep 'em, fund 'em, embrace and cherish 'em.
David Baldacci
#66. The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness which the ambitious call, and the ignorant believe to be liberty.
Fisher Ames
#67. I believe in the fireside. I believe in the democracy of home. I believe in the republicanism of the family. I believe in liberty, equality and love.
Robert G. Ingersoll
#68. Often the greatest progress happen in the most difficult of times.
Jeanette Coron
#69. In a democracy, the opposition is not only tolerated as constitutional, but must be maintained because it is indispensable.
Walter Lippmann
#70. Until genuine political, economic, and cultural liberty are established, democracy is unlikely to offer anything more than a simulacrum of legitimacy for an oppressive regime.
David Harsanyi
#71. Liberty of the people is not my liberty!
Max Stirner
#72. Democracy matters because it reflects an idea of equality and an idea of liberty. It reflects an idea of dignity, the dignity of the individual, the idea that each individual should have an equal vote, an equal say, in the formation of their government.
Rory Stewart
#73. A nation is truly corrupted when having ... lost its character and it's liberty, it passes from democracy to aristocracy or to monarchy. That is the decrepitude and death of the body politic ...
Maximilien De Robespierre
#75. If large numbers of people believe in freedom of speech, there will be freedom of speech, even if the law forbids it. But if public opinion is sluggish, inconvenient minorities will be persecuted, even if laws exist to protect them.
[Freedom of the Park, Tribune, 7 December 1945]
George Orwell
#76. The problem is that democracy is not freedom. Democracy is simply majoritarianism, which is inherently incompatible with real freedom. Our founding fathers clearly understood this.
Ron Paul
#77. 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
#78. I passionately love liberty, legality, respect for rights, but not democracy. That is what I find in the depth of my soul.
Alexis De Tocqueville
#79. The act of voting by ordinary Iraqis in the face of extreme danger confirms President Bush's belief that people around the globe, when given a chance, will choose liberty and democracy over enslavement and tyranny.
John Ensign
#80. Spain and the United States share the same values of democracy, liberty and fundamental freedoms.
King Felipe VI
#81. A politician normally prospers under democracy in proportion ... as he excels in the invention of imaginary perils and imaginary defenses against them.
H.L. Mencken
#82. Democracy, like liberty, justice and other social and political rights, is not "given", it is earned through courage, resolution and sacrifice.
Aung San Suu Kyi
#83. Being democratic is not enough, a majority cannot turn what is wrong into right. In order to be considered truly free, countries must also have a deep love of liberty and an abiding respect for the rule of law.
Margaret Thatcher
#84. What if democracy does not serve liberty? This question is seldom asked in the West, where democracy is often seen as synonymous with liberalism.
Mustafa Akyol
#85. The Founders knew that a democracy would lead to some kind of tyranny. The term democracy appears in none of our Founding documents. Their vision for us was a Republic and limited government.
Walter E. Williams
#86. What are the American ideals? They are the development of the individual for his own and the common good; the development of the individual through liberty; and the attainment of the common good through democracy and social justice.
Louis D. Brandeis
#87. Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!
Benjamin Franklin
#88. So much of liberalism in its classical sense is taken for granted in the west today and even disrespected. We take freedom for granted, and because of this we don't understand how incredibly vulnerable it is.
Niall Ferguson
#89. The will of a majority is the will of a rabble. Progressive democracy is incompatable with liberty.
John C. Calhoun
#90. We have, on the whole, more liberty and less equality than Russia has. Russia has less liberty and more equality. Whether democracy should be defined primarily in terms of liberty or equality is a source of unending debate.
Reinhold Niebuhr
#91. The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerated the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
#92. Organized religion, wielding power over the community, is antithetical to the process of what modern democracy should define as liberty. The sooner we are without it, the better.
Lawrence M. Krauss
#93. Democracy is necessarily despotism, as it establishes an executive power contrary to the general will; all being able to decide against one whose opinion may differ, the will of all is therefore not that of all: which is contradictory and opposite to liberty.
Immanuel Kant
#94. Our democracy depends on an informed citizenry to survive, Your Honor. Besides the advancement of truth, science and morality in general, the freedom of the press is a backbone of democracy. It exists to keep the government transparent, and the human instruments of government honest.
Kenneth Eade
#95. Our country's founders cherished liberty, not democracy.
Ron Paul
#96. I believe Britishness is defined not on ethnic and exclusive grounds but through shared values; our history of tolerance, openness and internationalism; and our commitment to democracy and liberty, to civic duty and the public space.
David Blunkett
#97. The deadliest foe of democracy is not autocracy but liberty frenzied.
Otto Hermann Kahn
#98. Puritanism, believing itself quick with the seed of religious liberty, laid, without knowing it, the egg of democracy.
James Russell Lowell
#99. The essence of constitutionalism in a democracy is not merely to shape and condition the nature of majorities, but also to stipulate that certain things are impermissible, no matter how large and fervent a majority might want them.
George Will
#100. [T]he superstitions to be feared in the present day are much less religious than political; and of all the forms of idolatry I know none more irrational and ignoble than this blind worship of mere numbers. - William Lecky, Democracy and Liberty
Bryan Caplan
