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Democracy quotes

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“We should be men first, and subjects afterward.” Henry David Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience” - 1849

“It runs as follows: The State is made for man, not man for the State.” Albert Einstein, “The world as I see it” - 1949

“A State for one man is no State at all.” Sophocles, “Antigone” - c. 441 BC

“Our political experiment of democracy, the last refuge of cheap misgovernment, will ruin us if our citizens are ill bred.” George Bernard Shaw, “Man and Superman” - 1903

“It was not lack of ability that limited my people, but lack of opportunity.” Nelson Mandela, “Long Walk to Freedom” - 1995

“There was something called democracy. As though men were more than physico-chemically equal.” Aldous Huxley, “Brave New World” - 1932

“A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.” Theodore Roosevelt, “Theodore Roosevelt; an Autobiography” - 1913

“Every citizen, it is said, must have equality, and therefore in a democracy the poor have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme.” Aristotle, “Politics”

“He who is a citizen in a democracy will often not be a citizen in an oligarchy.” Aristotle, “Politics”

“There are two things which a democratic people will always find very difficult—to begin a war, and to end it.” Alexis de Tocqueville, “Democracy in America” - 1840

“Were there a people of gods, their government would be democratic. So perfect a government is not for men.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau, “The Social Contract” - 1762

“VOTE, n. The instrument and symbol of a freeman's power to make a fool of himself and a wreck of his country.” Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil's Dictionary” - 1911

“The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy.” Woodrow Wilson, “The New Freedom” - 1913

“A democracy is more than a form of government; it is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience.” John Dewey, “Democracy and Education” - 1916

“The progress from an absolute to a limited monarchy, from a limited monarchy to a democracy, is a progress toward a true respect for the individual.” Henry David Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience” - 1849

“Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it.” Henry David Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience” - 1849

“We want the will of the people, not the votes of the people; and to give a man a vote against his will is to make voting more valuable than the democracy it declares.” G. K. Chesterton, “What's Wrong with the World” - 1910

“In place of the King’s arbitrary despotism they proposed, not the withering anarchy of feudal separatism, but a system of checks and balances which would accord the monarchy its necessary strength, but would prevent its perversion by a tyrant...” Winston Churchill, “A History of the English-Speaking Peoples” - 1956

“This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit...” Martin Luther King, Jr., “I have a Dream” - 28 August 1963

“If I preached unity, I must act like a unifier, even at the risk of perhaps alienating some of my own colleagues.” Nelson Mandela, “Long Walk to Freedom” - 1995

“To safeguard democracy the people must have a keen sense of independence, self-respect and their oneness, and should insist upon choosing as their representatives only such persons as are good and true.” Mahatma Gandhi, “The Story of my Experiments with Truth” - 1929

“The tax which each individual is bound to pay, ought to be certain and not arbitrary.” Adam Smith, “The Wealth of Nations” - 1776

“To play the demagogue for purposes of self-interest is a cardinal sin against the people in a democracy, exactly as to play the courtier for such purposes is a cardinal sin against the people under other forms of government.” Theodore Roosevelt, “Theodore Roosevelt; an Autobiography” - 1913

“For 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 the government to the utmost.” Aristotle, “Politics”

“Democracy, for example, arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects; because men are equally free, they claim to be absolutely equal.” Aristotle, “Politics”

“And so tyranny naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme form of liberty?” Plato, “The Republic”

“All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and the shortest means to accomplish it.” Alexis de Tocqueville, “Democracy in America” - 1840

“No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country.” Alexis de Tocqueville, “Democracy in America” - 1840

“Nothing is more necessary to the culture of the higher sciences, or of the more elevated departments of science, than meditation; and nothing is less suited to meditation than the structure of democratic society.” Alexis de Tocqueville, “Democracy in America” - 1840

“Democratic institutions generally give men a lofty notion of their country and of themselves.” Alexis de Tocqueville, “Democracy in America” - 1840

“Jealousy is a virtue of democracies which preserves them from tyrants.” Anatole France, “Penguin Island” - 1908

“In every ordered State, wealth is a sacred thing: in democracies it is the only sacred thing.” Anatole France, “Penguin Island” - 1908

“Full steam — Knowledge — Zzzzzp! Money — Zzzzzzp! — Power! That’s the cycle democracy is built on!” Tennessee Williams, “The Glass Menagerie” - 1944

“The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the trusted foundations of political liberty.” Woodrow Wilson, “We Must Accept War” - 2 April 1917

“One of the fundamental problems of education in and for a democratic society is set by the conflict of a nationalistic and a wider social aim.” John Dewey, “Democracy and Education” - 1916

Related topics

government freedom power equality respect war peace vote state tyranny men will liberty citizenship foolishness justice sin poverty man slavery

Related authors

Alexis de Tocqueville (5)
Aristotle (4)
Henry David Thoreau (3)
Nelson Mandela (2)
Theodore Roosevelt (2)
Anatole France (2)
Woodrow Wilson (2)
John Dewey (2)
George Bernard Shaw (1)
G. K. Chesterton (1)
Winston Churchill (1)
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1)
Albert Einstein (1)
Aldous Huxley (1)
Mahatma Gandhi (1)
Adam Smith (1)
Plato (1)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1)
Sophocles (1)
Ambrose Bierce (1)

Related sources

Democracy in America (5)
Politics (4)
Civil Disobedience (3)
Long Walk to Freedom (2)
Theodore Roosevelt; an Autobiography (2)
Penguin Island (2)
Democracy and Education (2)
Man and Superman (1)
What's Wrong with the World (1)
A History of the English-Speaking Peoples (1)
I have a Dream (1)
The world as I see it (1)
Brave New World (1)
The Story of my Experiments with Truth (1)
The Wealth of Nations (1)
The Republic (1)
The Social Contract (1)
Antigone (1)
The Devil's Dictionary (1)
The Glass Menagerie (1)