A democracy which makes or even effectively prepares for modern, scientific war must necessarily cease to be democratic. No country can be really well prepared for modern war unless it is governed by a tyrant, at the head of a highly trained and perfectly obedient bureaucracy.

On account of being a democracy and run by the people, we are the only nation in the world that has to keep a government four years, no matter what it does.

Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.

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

I think organized labor is a necessary part of democracy. Organized labor is the only way to have fair distribution of wealth.

How easy it is to govern when one follows a system of consulting the will of the people and one holds as the only norm all the actions which contribute to the well being of the people.

Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.

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.

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

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.

Democracy as a system has evolved into something that Thomas Jefferson didn’t anticipate.

The ballot is stronger than the bullet.

In order to fulfill the aspirations of masses, we have to sharpen the tool called the government machinery: we have to make it keen, more dynamic, and it is in this direction that we are working.

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism.

Even to observe neutrality you must have a strong government.

President Obama seems completely unaware of how many of the policies he is trying to impose have been tried before, in many times and places around the world, and have failed time and again.

Optimism comes less easily today, not because democracy is less vigorous, but because democracy’s enemies have refined their instruments of repression.

The people will save their government, if the government itself will allow them.

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

Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.

The wisest use of American strength is to advance freedom.

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.

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

We have the oldest written constitution still in force in the world, and it starts out with three words, ‚We, the people.‘

The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.

All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.

Israel was not created in order to disappear – Israel will endure and flourish. It is the child of hope and the home of the brave. It can neither be broken by adversity nor demoralized by success. It carries the shield of democracy and it honors the sword of freedom.

If there was one decision I would overrule, it would be ‚Citizens United.‘ I think the notion that we have all the democracy that money can buy strays so far from what our democracy is supposed to be.

To give victory to the right, not bloody bullets, but peaceful ballots only, are necessary.

I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy – but that could change.

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

Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.

Despotism can only exist in darkness, and there are too many lights now in the political firmament to permit it to remain anywhere, as it has heretofore done, almost everywhere.

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.

Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.

In 1979, Iranians carried out an illegitimate act: They overthrew a tyrant that the United States had imposed and supported, and moved on an independent path, not following U.S. orders.

Things in our country run in spite of government, not by aid of it.

I think the notion that we have all the democracy that money can buy strays so far from what our democracy is supposed to be.

The spirit of democracy is not a mechanical thing to be adjusted by abolition of forms. It requires change of heart.

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

Corruption is a cancer: a cancer that eats away at a citizen’s faith in democracy, diminishes the instinct for innovation and creativity; already-tight national budgets, crowding out important national investments. It wastes the talent of entire generations. It scares away investments and jobs.

For Forms of Government let fools contest; whatever is best administered is best.

China has to go along with world trends. That’s democracy, liberty, individual freedom. China sooner or later has to go that way. It cannot go backward.

Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.

Democratic societies are unfit for the publication of such thunderous revelations as I am in the habit of making.

This country is being managed to death, being public related to death.

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

Reading and writing, like everything else, improve with practice. And, of course, if there are no young readers and writers, there will shortly be no older ones. Literacy will be dead, and democracy – which many believe goes hand in hand with it – will be dead as well.

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.

Democracy don’t rule the world, You’d better get that in your head; This world is ruled by violence, But I guess that’s better left unsaid.

We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.

Democracy 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.

It is difficult to make our material condition better by the best law, but it is easy enough to ruin it by bad laws.

I repeat… that all power is a trust; that we are accountable for its exercise; that from the people and for the people all springs, and all must exist.

The very design of neoliberal principles is a direct attack on democracy.

For more than four decades, the Libyan people have been ruled by a tyrant – Moammar Gaddafi. He has denied his people freedom, exploited their wealth, murdered opponents at home and abroad, and terrorized innocent people around the world – including Americans who were killed by Libyan agents.

Adultery is the application of democracy to love.

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

While democracy in the long run is the most stable form of government, in the short run, it is among the most fragile.

Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.

Any change is resisted because bureaucrats have a vested interest in the chaos in which they exist.