Democracy Quotes
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Despite the dubious statistics … democracy is a thing of value for which we should be fighting.
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For me, it's sort of like a cultural democracy or musical socialism to take a stand and get out of the major cities if you can.
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Silence is not what democracy needs. Right now we have an election where, even the supporters of Hillary Clinton, the majority don't support Hillary; they just oppose Donald Trump. And the majority of Donald Trump supporters don't support him; they just oppose Hillary.
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Democracy, like the human organism, carries within it the seed of its own destruction.
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A functioning, robust democracy requires a healthy educated, participatory followership, and an educated, morally grounded leadership.
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Democracy rests upon two pillars: one, the principle that all men are equally entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; and the other, the conviction that such equal opportunity will most advance civilization.
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Real democracy means that no group or faction or leader can impose their will, their ideology, their religion, their desires on anyone else.
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Hanging one scoundrel, it appears, does not deter the next. Well, what of it? The first one is at least disposed of.
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As all of our lives become digital, the logic of encryption is all of our lives will be covered by strong encryption, and therefore all of our lives - including the lives of criminals and terrorists and spies - will be in a place that is utterly unavailable to court-ordered process. And that, I think, to a democracy should be very, very concerning.
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Education is a human right with immense power to transform. On its foundation rest the cornerstones of freedom, democracy and sustainable human development.
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Margaret Thatcher's government redistributed money from rich to poor. And that's the nature of a modern western democracy.
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In Afghanistan, there is a plan to build democracy; hundreds of thousands of troops are protecting it. There is a plan to rebuild and reconstruct there. But many thousands of Americans die from violence and poverty every year and we don't have a plan for reconstruction at home.
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The saddest life is that of a political aspirant under democracy. His failure is ignominious and his success is disgraceful.
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We can't equate democracy with Christianity because the largest democracy on earth is India, which is primarily Hindu. The third largest democracy is Indonesia, which is Islamic. Democracy and freedom are not dependent on Christian beliefs.
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Real democracy is only possible when people truly imbibe democratic principles and respect ethical values above everything else.
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Democracy cannot be exported to some other place. This must be a product of internal domestic development in a society.
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The US has not imposed democracy in Yemen, its people have.
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We need an attitude of defiance, not an attitude of cowardice. Out in the street, that's how we are winning against the TransCanada Pipeline. This is how we have delayed the Trans-Pacific Partnership and forced it into an election season, gotten everybody to stand against it. Democracy is not about surrender.
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The rise of democracy was driven by the citizens' desire to escape from the paternalistic and arbitrary charity of those with money. They accomplished this by replacing charity with a fair, balanced, arm's-length system of public obligation. The principle tool of that obligation was taxation.
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In a democracy, people tend to get the kind of government they deserve.
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We discussed the history of postwar Japan and how Japan had missed an opportunity to build a more functional democracy because of the focus on fighting communism driven in large part by the American occupation.
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Let me say that if the political arena is your choice as you work to keep our democracy strong and our essential freedoms accessible for all, then that is what you should do, and I salute you. We need champions in all walks of our civic discourse.
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I don't have any formula for ousting a dictator or building democracy. All I can suggest is to forget about yourself and just think of your people. It's always the people who make things happen.
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When we talk about democracy, if the people's stomach is empty, democracy is also empty. Democracy can not be installed by fiat; it must be achieved by the people themselves.
