I believe in democracy, because it releases the energies of every human being.
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American Head of State
Democracy is the menopause of Western society, the Grand Climacteric of the body social. Fascism is its middle-aged lust.
—Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) French Sociologist, Philosopher
That a peasant may become king does not render the kingdom democratic.
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American Head of State
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 (1917–86) American Essayist, Drama Critic
What we call a democratic society might be defined for certain purposes as one in which the majority is always prepared to put down a revolutionary minority.
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) American Journalist, Political Commentator, Writer
Democracy is never a thing done. Democracy is always something that a nation must be doing. What is necessary now is one thing and one thing only that democracy become again democracy in action, not democracy accomplished and piled up in goods and gold.
—Archibald MacLeish (1892–1982) American Poet, Dramatist
Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a Heaven for?
—Robert Browning (1812–89) English Poet
Democracy is the form of government that gives every man the right to be his own oppressor.
—James Russell Lowell (1819–91) American Poet, Critic
The progress of democracy seems irresistible, because it is the most uniform, the most ancient, and the most permanent tendency which is to be found in history.
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–59) French Historian, Political Scientist
Two cheers for democracy one because it admits variety and two because it permits criticism. Two cheers are quite enough: There is no occasion to give three.
—E. M. Forster (1879–1970) English Novelist, Short Story Writer, Essayist
Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.
—Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) American Christian Theologian
The history of the gospel has been the history of the development and growth of Christian democratic ideas.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
Democracy is also a form of religion. It is the worship of jackals by jackasses.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
It is a great blessing, says Pascal: “to be born a man of quality, since it brings a man as far forward at eighteen or twenty as another would be at fifty, which is a clear gain of thirty years.”—These thirty years are commonly wanting to the ambitious characters of democracies.—The principle of equality, which allows every man to arrive at everything, prevents all men from rapid advancement.
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–59) French Historian, Political Scientist
There is a limit to the application of democratic methods. You can inquire of all the passengers as to what type of car they like to ride in, but it is impossible to question them as to whether to apply the brakes when the train is at full speed and accident threatens.
—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940) Russian Marxist Revolutionary
Democracy is based upon the conviction that there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people.
—Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878–1969) American Baptist Minister
Democracy does not contain any force which will check the constant tendency to put more and more on the public payroll. The state is like a hive of bees in which the drones display, multiply and starve the workers so the idlers will consume the food and the workers will perish.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
The real democratic American idea is, not that every man shall be on a level with every other man, but that every man shall have liberty to be what God made him, without hindrance.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
In our democracy we must have a partnership of labor, of business and of government.
—Charles H. Percy (1919–2011) American Businessperson, Politician
In a democracy, the individual enjoys not only the ultimate power but carries the ultimate responsibility.
—Norman Cousins (1915–90) American Journalist, Author, Academic, Activist
There can be no daily democracy without daily citizenship.
—Ralph Nader (b.1934) American Lawyer, Consumer Activist
America is the place where you cannot kill your government by killing the men who conduct it.
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American Head of State
Authority has always attracted the lowest elements in the human race. All through history mankind has been bullied by scum. Those who lord it over their fellows and toss commands in every direction and would boss the grass in the meadow about which way to bend in the wind are the most depraved kind of prostitutes. They will submit to any indignity, perform any vile act, do anything to achieve power. The worst off-sloughings of the planet are the ingredients of sovereignty. Every government is a parliament of whores. The trouble is, in a democracy the whores are us.
—P. J. O’Rourke (b.1947) American Journalist, Political Satirist
A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Explorer
The ballot is stronger than the bullet.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep him in prison because he is unpopular. This is really the test of civilization.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
It is the most beautiful truth in morals that we have no such thing as a distinct or divided interest from our race.—In their welfare is ours; and by choosing the broadest paths to effect their happiness, we choose the surest and shortest to our own.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
I understand democracy as something that gives the weak the same chance as the strong.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those others that have been tried from time to time.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
Everybody’s for democracy in principle. It’s only in practice that the thing gives rise to stiff objections.
—Meg Greenfield (1930–99) American Editor, Journalist, Socialite
I confess I enjoy democracy immensely. It is incomparably idiotic, and hence incomparably amusing.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
It is a besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law. This is the usual form in which masses of men exhibit their tyranny.
—James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851) American Novelist
Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing. Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the People, who have… a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean the characters and conduct of their rulers. There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free ‘government’ ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty. Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among people.
—John Adams (1735–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
I swear to the Lord
I still can’t see
Why Democracy means
Everybody but me.
—Langston Hughes (1902–67) American Poet, Fiction Writer, Dramatist
These, then, will be some of the features of democracy… it will be, in all likelihood, an agreeable, lawless, parti-colored commonwealth, dealing with all alike on a footing of equality, whether they be really equal or not.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.
—John Stuart Mill (1806–73) English Philosopher, Economist
Democracy is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequal alike.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
Democracy will itself accomplish the salutary universal change from the delusive to the real, and make a new blessed world of us bye and bye.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
In a democracy the majority of citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority…and that oppression of the majority will extend to far great number, and will be carried on with much greater fury, than can almost ever be apprehended from the dominion of a single sceptre. Under a cruel prince they have the plaudits of the people to animate their generous constancy under their sufferings; but those who are subjected to wrong under multitudes are deprived of all external consolation: they seem deserted by mankind, overpowered by a conspiracy of their whole species.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong.
—Eugene V. Debs (1855–1926) American Socialist, Union Leader
Democracy is the wholesome and pure air without which a socialist public organization cannot live a full-blooded life.
—Mikhail Gorbachev (b.1931) Soviet Head of State
I am a democrat only on principle, not by instinct—nobody is that. Doubtless some people say they are, but this world is grievously given to lying.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Democracy is not so much a form of government as a set of principles.
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American Head of State
Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule – and both commonly succeed, are right
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
Democracy is a process by which the people are free to choose the man who will get the blame.
—Laurence J. Peter (1919–90) Canadian-born American Educator, Author
A modern democracy is a tyranny whose borders are undefined; one discovers how far one can go only by traveling in a straight line until one is stopped.
—Norman Mailer (1923–2007) American Novelist Essayist
In a democracy dissent is an act of faith. Like medicine, the test of its value is not in its taste, but its effects.
—J. William Fulbright (1905–95) American Political leader, Politician
Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet