Top 100 Quotes About Democracies
#1. As in Athens, the right to participate was restricted to men, just as it was also in all later democracies and republics until the twentieth century.
Robert A. Dahl
#2. They [American forces] are there as an expression of the American national interest to prevent the Iranian combination of imperialism and fundamentalist ideology from dominating a region on which the energy supplies of the industrial democracies depend.
Henry A. Kissinger
#3. Most liberal democracies don't try to figure out what the truth is.
Alan Dershowitz
#4. I am nauseated by all these rotten people in Europe - and these fucking "democracies" are not worth even a crumb.
Frida Kahlo
#5. There are many democracies in our Arab and Islamic countries, but unfortunately, they are all false democracies.
Yusuf Al-Qaradawi
#6. As the histories of ancient and modern democracies illustrate, the pressure of political movement in times of war, civil commotion, or general anxiety pushes in the direction of authority, not away from it.
Robert Heilbroner
#7. It is a law of governance that democracies have to spend themselves dizzy. Citizens of democracies can, after all, tell their government to give them things.
P. J. O'Rourke
#8. All democracies are based on the proposition that power is very dangerous and that it is extremely important not to let any one person or small group have too much power for too long a time
Aldous Huxley
#9. The purpose cannot be creating self-styled democracies, but rather encouraging steps that are conducive to establishing democratic rule at universal standards. Obviously, this would be a formidable journey.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan
#10. The fact that it took the rise of democracies and otherwise open societies at Athens and elsewhere to create the climate in which public eloquence became a political indispensability.
Aristotle.
#11. The Roman Empire, born out the Roman Republic, with its ideas of democracy among a certain group of wealthy men (no vote for men without land -as with our Founding Fathers- and certainly no vote for women and slaves. Why are democracies built on top of one form of slavery or another?)
Tina Packer
#12. Ultimately, the best strategy to ensure our security and to build a durable peace is to support the advance of democracy elsewhere. Democracies don't attack each other.
William J. Clinton
#13. Basic decisions of our society are made through the expressed will of the people. That is why when we see these liberties threatened, instead of falling apart, our nation becomes unified and our democracies come together... in spite of our varied backgrounds and many racial strains.
Eleanor Roosevelt
#14. In every well-governed state wealth is a sacred thing; in democracies it is the only sacred thing.
Anatole France
#15. Only two countries in this hemisphere are not democratic, but many countries in both Central and South America, and in the Caribbean, are really fragile democracies.
Warren Christopher
#16. Jealousy is a virtue of democracies which preserves them from tyrants.
Anatole France
#17. The only distinction that democracies reward is a high degree of conformity.
Ambrose Bierce
#18. The diverse natures of men, combined with the necessity to satisfy in some manner the sentiment which desires them to be equal, has had the result that in the democracies they have endeavored to provide the appearance of power in the people and the reality of power in an elite.
Vilfredo Pareto
#19. It is interesting to note that an overwhelming majority of citizens in the world's three largest democracies have different religions: India (81 percent Hindu), the United States (76 percent Christian), and Indonesia (87 percent Muslim). Two of them have elected women as leaders of their government.
Jimmy Carter
#20. I realized that democracy is indivisible, or rather, that freedom is indivisible. There are many clown-democracies in the Arab world, which have nothing to do with freedom.
Walid Jumblatt
#21. The fight against terror is a common imperative for democracies and must become so for all nations.
Lionel Jospin
#22. Democracies don't prepare well for things that have never happened before.
Richard A. Clarke
#23. Nothing to impede progress. If you want to see the fate of democracies, look out the windows.
House Peters Jr.
#24. The three main sources of scepticism are first, that not every people desires freedom; second, that democracy in certain parts of the world would be dangerous; and third, that there is little the world's democracies can do to advance freedom outside their countries.
Natan Sharansky
#25. The United States is unusual among the industrial democracies in the rigidity of the system of ideological control - 'indoctrination', we might say - exercised through the mass media.
Noam Chomsky
#26. In emerging democracies like Russia, in authoritarian states like Iran or even Yugoslavia, journalists play a vital role in civil society. In fact, they form the very basis of those new democracies and civil societies.
Christiane Amanpour
#27. How have relations with Iran and Belarus benefited Venezuela? We are interested in countries that have democracies, that respect human rights, that we have an affinity with. What affinity do we have with Iran?
Henrique Capriles Radonski
#28. To balance China, the democracies will need new friends - and India with its fast-growing economy, youthful population, and democratic politics seems the obvious candidate.
David Frum
#29. America is an outlier in the world of democracies when it comes to the structure and conduct of elections.
Thomas E. Mann
#30. For many Washington liberals, terrorism was not the instrument of political fanatics and evil men, but was the product of social conditions - poverty, racism and oppression - for which the Western democracies, including Israel were always ultimately to blame.
David Horowitz
#31. A democracy depends upon people getting brighter all the time. Democracies are delicate. They're not just ipso facto and just go on and on.
Norman Mailer
#32. The descendants of Holy Roman Empire monarchies became feeble-minded in the twentieth century, and after World War I had been done in by the democracies; some were kept on to entertain the tourists, like the one they have in England.
Ishmael Reed
#33. political democracies that do not democratize their economic systems are inherently unstable.
Thomas Piketty
#34. Where we find young democracies, we need to help them. Where we find the enemy, we need to fight them. And that's exactly the Bush policy.
George W. Bush
#35. You are never wrong when you have voted because you've acted in accordance with your conscience and your beliefs, and you've exercised your democratic right, which is, you know, perfectly legitimate in our democracies.
Christine Lagarde
#36. Whatever modern democracies may tell themselves about their commitment to free speech and to diversity of opinion, the values of a given society will uncannily match those of whichever organizations have the scale to pay for runs of thirty-second slots around the nightly news bulletin.
Alain De Botton
#37. Acts of anti-Semitism in countries throughout the world, including some of the world's strongest democracies, have increased significantly in frequency and scope over the last several years.
Tim Holden
#38. As the largest and most developed democracies of Asia (India and Japan), we have a mutual stake in each other's progress and prosperity.
Manmohan Singh
#39. Democracies should be a delirium of choices - more options, not fewer; more avenues to travel, not fewer.
B.W. Powe
#40. I would argue that in times of war, sealed lips sink entire democracies. If we don't have access to vital information, we lose everything.
Ted Gup
#41. The principles governing Western democracies, of which Israel rightly considers itself a part, are based on the assurance that everyone has a vote, but also that the minority needs to yield to the wishes of the majority.
Edgar Bronfman, Sr.
#42. Asia's governments come in two broad varieties: young, fragile democracies - and older, fragile authoritarian regimes.
Paul Samuelson
#43. The well being of democracies regardless of their type and status is dependent on one small technical detail: The right to vote. Everything else is secondary.
Jose Ortega Y Gasset
#44. 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.
Richard Armitage
#45. One of the most perplexing political questions of the late 20th century is how new democracies should punish deposed dictators and their associates. Victims cry for justice, but leaders of new regimes must decide to what extent it is possible, moral or prudent to pursue evildoers of the past.
Stephen Kinzer
#46. In democracies, nothing is more great or more brilliant than commerce: it attracts the attention of the public, and fills the imagination of the multitude; all energetic passions are directed towards it.
Alexis De Tocqueville
#47. What makes me worry today is the alarming decline in the trust in democratic institutions - political parties, Parliaments, political leaders. Less and less people are going to the polls in most advanced democracies.
Ivan Krastev
#48. There is no society that protects freedom of religion more than secular democracies, because in societies where one religion rules, different viewpoints will be labelled as heresy and blasphemy. Why? Because the society is built on religion - not freedom for all points of view.
Flemming Rose
#49. Jews have not only become equal citizens in Western democracies, they have become leading citizens. And, of course, the reestablishment of the State of Israel has given Jews a political presence in the world they have not had since biblical times.
David Novak
#50. The contribution of the Western democracies to the awakening of the East has been indirect and certainly unintended. They have kindled an enthusiasm of resentment against the West; and it is this anti-Western fervor which is at present rousing the Orient from its stagnation of centuries.2
Eric Hoffer
#51. It is important to demonstrate to the unfree world that one of the privileges of democracies is to enjoy freedom of travel and intercourse and the exchange of knowledge and ideas. [Gerald Barry, from article in English Speaking World, 1950.]
Harriet Atkinson
#52. Democracies are notorious for a tendency to obey the feelings rather than the mind; thus the nature of democracies often makes itdifficult to conclude a peace after a hard-won war. Generous victors are rare.
Amos Elon
#53. We all know how 'modern democracies take loaves from the wealthy.' It's the slipups in the 'pass them out to the poor' department that inspire a study of Economics.
P. J. O'Rourke
#54. In view of China's growing military strength and intentions, the best way to safeguard Asia's permanent peace and prosperity is to have all Asian countries join forces with other democratic countries in the world to form a global community of democracies.
Jim Costa
#55. however, is that there is no alternative. Communist societies, social democracies, and even modest social welfare states like the United States have all failed, the neoliberals proclaim, and their citizens have accepted neoliberalism as the only feasible course.
Noam Chomsky
#56. I hate war ... for the dictatorships it puts in the place of democracies, and for the starvation that stalks after it.
Harry Emerson Fosdick
#57. Taiwan's democracy has grown very fast and we enjoy a certain degree of freedom, as other developed democracies like the United States.
Annette Lu
#58. Democracies have to be careful that they do not become so process-driven.
Hillary Clinton
#59. We can be proud of our record as an international beacon of liberty. From fostering democracies in Eastern Europe to the stabilization of Iraq and Afghanistan, we have been true to that calling and helped spread freedom to oppressed peoples everywhere.
Kay Bailey Hutchison
#60. Americans had to choose between permitting them to become democracies or maintaining power over them. It was an easy choice.
Stephen Kinzer
#61. As John Adams said, all democracies will eventually self-destruct. We seem to be doing it very quickly.
Rosanne Cash
#62. These fledgling democracies in the Middle East, they're actually fighting for their freedom. And what are they rioting for in England? Leisurewear.
Noel Gallagher
#64. Globally, democracies have also acted in ways that suggest an outright renunciation of their principles at home.
Nayef Al-Rodhan
#65. Democracies must have equilibrium ... and the entanglement of politics and information must be minimized.
Romano Prodi
#66. When the Berlin Wall fell and suddenly all those countries had burgeoning democracies, women were still being left out. The big turning point, about ten years ago, was moving from a notion of empowering women to actually looking at where you can make the most difference, and it's in a girl's life.
Kathy Calvin
#67. Democracies succeed or fail based on their journalism.
Scott Pelley
#68. We should encourage governments to be sustained by citizens' taxes - that is, democracies. Democracies will be enduring allies of America.
Iqbal Quadir
#69. Observing the volatile nature of the new democracies, I came vividly to see how unimportant a part of democracy are elections, in comparison with the enduring institutions and public spirit that make elected politicians accountable.
Roger Scruton
#71. The country is only as strong as its journalism - that's the way democracies work. The higher the quality of the information, the better informed the electorate is and the better the government runs.
Scott Pelley
#72. The reason that democracies always defeat dictatorships is because they're open to debate. We should never allow Washington to say, 'Shut up, get in line and wave the flag.'
Ralph Nader
#73. History is full of examples of regimes that were oppressing at home and aggressive abroad, and I can't think of too many liberal democracies engaging in counterfeiting, drug running, missile proliferation, and just about any other illegal activity you can think of as North Korea does.
Ed Royce
#74. I've often thought that the gauntlet of American politics is more individualistic, more expensive, more unpredictable than in many other democracies.
Hillary Clinton
#75. What chiefly diverts the men of democracies from lofty ambition is not the scantiness of their fortunes, but the vehemence of the exertions they daily make to improve them.
Alexis De Tocqueville
#76. The tragedy of modern democracies is that they have not yet succeeded in effecting democracy.
Jacques Maritain
#77. Masculine republics give way to feminine democracies, and feminine democracies give way to tyranny.
Aristotle.
#78. The all but unanimous judgment seems to be that we, the democracies, are just as responsible for the rise of the dictators as the dictatorships themselves, and perhaps more so.
Harry Emerson Fosdick
#79. Of old, the demagogue was also a general, and then democracies changed into tyrannies. Most of the ancient tyrants were originally demagogues. They are not so now, but they were then; and the reason is that they were generals and not orators, for oratory had not yet come into fashion.
Aristotle.
#80. Democracy needs support, and the best support for democracy comes from other democracies.
Benazir Bhutto
#81. Many of the Western democracies - including the U.S. - have a problem that voters want benefits they don't want to pay for.
Henry Paulson
#82. It is the besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law. This is the usual form in which the masses of men exhibit their tyranny.
James F. Cooper
#83. As the 20th century ended, there were around 120 democracies in the world - and I can assure you more are on the way.
George W. Bush
#84. Democracies don't go to war against each other, and by and large they don't sponsor terrorism. They're more likely to respect the environment and human rights and social justice. It's no accident that most of the terrorists come from non-democratic countries.
William J. Clinton
#85. The United Nations is an uplifting experiment, dedicated to raising the standards of living in Africa , the consciences of democracies, and the price of prostitutes in New York
Frank Dane
#86. Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms.
Aristotle.
#87. You can't have an industrial revolution, you can't have democracies, you can't have populations who can govern themselves until you have literacy. The printing press simply unlocked literacy.
Howard Rheingold
#88. The way people in democracies think of the government as something different from themselves is a real handicap. And, of course, sometimes the government confirms their opinion.
Lewis Mumford
#89. Democracies die behind closed doors ... When government begins closing doors, it selectively controls information rightfully belonging to the people. Selective information is misinformation.
Damon Keith
#90. The problem is that the things demanded by an empire, which is staying power, ruthlessness, the ability and the willingness to use its power around the world, it's something that democracies tend to be quite skeptical about.
Mark Danner
#91. Dictators can fix up their entire families in good jobs, in or around government, and often do. In democracies, such a practice is frowned upon. Privileged access to the corridors of power through family connections and a kind of old boys' network, is also deemed an abuse of power, and so it is.
Jimmy Reid
#92. The European history of the twentieth century shows us that societies can break, democracies can fall, ethics can collapse, and ordinary men can find themselves standing over death pits with guns in their hands. It would serve us well today to understand why. Both
Timothy Snyder
#93. Corporation: a miniature totalitarian state governed by a hierarchy of unelected officials who take a dim view of individualism, free speech, equality and eggheads. The backbone of all Western democracies.
Rick Bayan
#94. The American people and the Israeli peoples share a faith in the future and believe that democracies can shape their own destinies and that opportunities should be available to all. Throughout its own extraordinary history, Israel has given life to that promise.
Barack Obama
#95. 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.
Frank Capra
#96. Local prohibitions cannot block advances in military and commercial technology ... Democratic movements for local restraint can only restrain the world's democracies, not the world as a whole.
K. Eric Drexler
#97. In America, unlike England, unlike Israel, unlike Japan, other democracies, we have elections that have staggered terms.
Barney Frank
#98. Why should the Negroes ever fight against the only nations of the world where racial discrimination is prohibited, and where the people can live freely? Never! I can assure you, they will never fight against either the Soviet Union or the peoples' democracies.
Paul Robeson
#99. All of my novels are democracies.
Amos Oz
#100. We have to implant democracies where there are now dictatorships.
Tom Tancredo
