The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
In our democracy we must have a partnership of labor, of business and of government.
—Charles H. Percy (1919–2011) American Businessperson, Politician
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
We cannot possibly reconcile the principle of democracy, which means co-operation, with the principle of governmental omniscience under which everyone waits for an order before doing anything. That way lies loss of freedom, and dictatorship.
—Lewis H. Brown (1894–1951) American Businessperson
A man is judged by the company he keeps, and a company is judged by the men it keeps, and the people of Democratic nations are judged by the type and caliber of officers they elect.
—William J. H. Boetcker (1873–1962) American Presbyterian Minister
Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.
—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) 2nd US President, Founding Father, Statesman
A perfect democracy is therefore the most shameless thing in the world.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
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 democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
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 substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Democracy is not the law of the majority but protection of the minority.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Novelist
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
I understand democracy as something that gives the weak the same chance as the strong.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
Democracy arose from men’s thinking that if they are equal in any respect, they are equal absolutely.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
Democracy is “government of, by and for the people.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
In this and like communities public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed; consequently he who moulds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes and decisions. He makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to be executed.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
Democracy is the wholesome and pure air without which a socialist public organization cannot live a full-blooded life.
—Mikhail Gorbachev (1931–2022) Soviet Head of State
It is the common failing of totalitarian regimes that they cannot really understand the nature of our democracy. They mistake dissent for disloyalty. They mistake restlessness for a rejection of policy. They mistake a few committees for a country. They misjudge individual speeches for public policy.
—Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–73) American Head of State, Political leader
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
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 not so much a form of government as a set of principles.
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American Head of State
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
Democracy is only a dream: it should be put in the same category as Arcadia, Santa Claus, and Heaven.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
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
The freeman, casting with unpurchased hand the vote that shakes the turrets of the land.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
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