Ian Buruma Quotes
Citizenship of a democratic state means living by the laws of the country. A liberal democracy cannot survive when part of the population believes that divine laws trump those made by man.
Quotes to Explore
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Is America truly a democracy? Has America ever been a democracy with the institution of slavery?
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Islam's laws are fixed and that is why Islam is stable.
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I have not broken the laws of the United States or the laws of the Dominican Republic.
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Safe storage and child access prevention laws are critical steps as we seek to reduce the occurrence of accidental shootings and suicides involving guns.
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By its very nature, hard-line ideology is self-serving and self-perpetuating; its primary goal is to survive - and that precludes everything.
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I don't order laws, I propose them.
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The deadliest foe of democracy is not autocracy but liberty frenzied.
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The ultimate binding element in the medieval order was subordination to the divine will and its earthly representatives, notably the pope.
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If a jerk burns the flag, America is not threatened, democracy is not under siege, freedom is not at risk.
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Our brand of democracy is hard. But I can promise that a year from now, when I no longer hold this office, I'll be right there with you as a citizen - inspired by those voices of fairness and vision, of grit and good humor and kindness that have helped America travel so far.
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When public men indulge themselves in abuse, when they deny others a fair trial, when they resort to innuendo and insinuation, to libel, scandal, and suspicion, then our democratic society is outraged, and democracy is baffled.
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Marry an outdoors woman. Then if you throw her out into the yard on a cold night, she can still survive.
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No party has a monopoly on wisdom. No democracy works without compromise. But when Governor Romney and his allies in Congress tell us we can somehow lower our deficit by spending trillions more on new tax breaks for the wealthy - well, you do the math. I refuse to go along with that. And as long as I'm President, I never will.
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Too many people expect wonders from democracy, when the most wonderful thing of all is just having it.
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It is never smart, even in a strong democracy, to declare some debate off limits. In a weakening democracy it is catastrophic.
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I think that the failure of newspaper competition in a community is a very serious handicap to the dissemination of the knowledge that the citizens need to participate in a democracy.
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Democracy cannot survive without the guidance of a creative minority.
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In this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics!
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A global democracy works only when countries trust one another.
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I think, at times of stress, you have to trust the pillars of democracy.
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Without the errors involved in the assumptions of ethics, man would have remained an animal. Thus has he taken himself as something higher and imposed rigid laws upon himself.
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I have always believed that freedom of information is so vital that only the national security, not the desire of public officials or private citizens, should determine when it must be restricted.
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We don't really need reviewers, just first-night reporters who will tell us faithfully whether or not the audience liked the show.
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Citizenship of a democratic state means living by the laws of the country. A liberal democracy cannot survive when part of the population believes that divine laws trump those made by man.
