Concentration of executive power, unless it’s very temporary and for specific circumstances, let’s say fighting world war two, it’s an assault on democracy.

Every age has its own poetry; in every age the circumstances of history choose a nation, a race, a class to take up the torch by creating situations that can be expressed or transcended only through poetry.

The best way to enhance freedom in other lands is to demonstrate here that our democratic system is worthy of emulation.

I’ve had just about everything punched. I’ve had things grabbed that just shouldn’t be grapped.

You’ve got to vote, vote, vote, vote. That’s it; that’s the way we move forward. That’s how we make progress for ourselves and for our country.

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.

The key is to vote because we need a vote to put the people in power that we want to represent us.

Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.

Saints can be happy under every circumstance.

I believe the Republicans have never thought that democracy was anything but a tribal myth.

We have the best government that money can buy.

Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.

If the people of Utah shall peacefully form a State Constitution tolerating polygamy, will the Democracy admit them into the Union?

I’ve always been very one-sided about science, and when I was younger, I concentrated almost all my effort on it.

I don’t think generally politician come from democratic country. I think not that thinking. But sometimes little bit short-sighted. They are mainly looking for their next vote.

I never could have done what I have done without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one subject at a time.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

There is too much government today. We’ve got to remember the government should be by the people, of the people, and for the people.

To acquire immunity to eloquence is of the utmost importance to the citizens of a democracy.

Everywhere that freedom stirs, let tyrants fear.

You can’t put democracy and freedom back into a box.

Democracy is also a form of worship. It is the worship of Jackals by Jackasses.

I think it’s important to vote.

To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea.

Women fight for democracy and engage in the world. But they shouldn’t try and be copying men and be masculine; they should anchor on the home and build on those fundamentals.

When I’m on stage, it’s really intense. My mind is going a million miles an hour, trying to remember my act, trying to say it all the right way. It’s funny how different it looks and how it’s happening. There are three Fellini circuses in my head, and outwardly it looks like I’m going to get a bagel.

It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it; consequently, the defenders of every kind of regime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using the word if it were tied down to any one meaning.

When I write, I tend to twist my hair. Something for my small mind to do, I guess.

Here, sir, the people govern; here they act by their immediate representatives.

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.

In a democracy, the well-being, individuality and happiness of every citizen is important for the overall prosperity, peace and happiness of the nation.

I am the son of a freedom fighter, and a son of a freedom fighter automatically imbibes the value of democracy.

You can’t keep your mind on fighting when you’re thinking about a woman. You can’t keep your concentration. You feel like sleeping all the time.

Anything important is never left to the vote of the people. We only get to vote on some man; we never get to vote on what he is to do.

When Bugs Bunny walks into rehab, people are going to turn and look. People at rehab were stealing my hats and pens and notebooks and asking for autographs. I couldn’t concentrate on my problem.

On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion.

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.

In a democracy, allegations will never improve situations. So, I’m against allegations, but I always welcome criticism.

Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated.

I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion.

I have my permanent muses and my muses of the moment.

Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods.

The objective I propose is quite simple to state: to foster the infrastructure of democracy – the system of a free press, unions, political parties, universities – which allows a people to choose their own way to develop their own culture, to reconcile their own differences through peaceful means.

If you are full of motivation as a player, if you are full of concentration, I am open arms.

I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.

I’m a writer, not a professional runner. It’s fun and it helps me write. I need powerful concentration.

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.

In a democracy, in a functioning democracy, what would be happening is that popular organizations, unions, political groupings, others would be developing their programs, putting them forth, insisting that their representatives implement those programs.

Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.

If you cannot concentrate, you are not so happy.

Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.

When you create circumstances together, when you try everything, then you can lose. But you need to show the importance.

That fatal drollery called a representative government.

In a democracy, the majority of the citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority.

Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.

Economic freedom cannot be sacrificed if political freedom is to be preserved.

We Americans… bear the ark of liberties of the world.

The wisest use of American strength is to advance freedom.

The album requires a certain focus of mine that I can’t really explain – let’s just say it’s all I can really do while I’m doing it.

I have often been asked what I think about at the moment of take-off. Of course, no pilot sits and feels his pulse as he flies. He has to be part of the machine. If he thinks of anything but the task in hand, then trouble is probably just around the corner.