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

All the blood is drained out of democracy – it dies – when only half the population votes.

We’ve become, now, an oligarchy instead of a democracy. I think that’s been the worst damage to the basic moral and ethical standards to the American political system that I’ve ever seen in my life.

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

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

Being part of a community with a church at its centre and singin‘ hymns is a great thing to do.

Being no bigot myself to any mode of worship, I am disposed to endulge the professors of Christianity in the church, that road to heaven which to them shall seem the most direct plainest easiest and least liable to exception.

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.

Man is made to adore and to obey: but if you will not command him, if you give him nothing to worship, he will fashion his own divinities, and find a chieftain in his own passions.

We don’t believe in planners and deciders making the decisions on behalf of Americans.

I consider anybody a twerp who hasn’t read ‚Democracy in America‘ by Alexis de Tocqueville. There can never be a better book than that one on the strengths and vulnerabilities inherent in our form of government.

All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin. And therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words ‚Ich bin ein Berliner!‘

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.

Even if the politics needed doesn’t exist today, we still need to use our voices to make sure that the people in power are focused on the right things. Because this is a democracy, and in a democracy, people are the ones who run the country.

When I joined the freedom movement in Mississippi in my early 20s, it was to come to the aid of sharecroppers, like my parents, who had been thrown off the land they’d always known – the plantations – because they attempted to exercise their ‚democratic‘ right to vote.

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 do not think I should care to go on worshipping a Madonna even if she did wink. One cannot make much out of a wink. We want something more than that from the object of our adoration.

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.

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

In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme.

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

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

Self-government can succeed only through an instructed electorate.

A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease.

We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don’t like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States.

Our public life withers when only the most extreme voices get attention. Most of all, democracy breaks down when the average person feels their voice doesn’t matter; that the system is rigged in favor of the rich or the powerful or some narrow interest.

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

I’ve used the prestige and influence of having been a president of the United States as effectively as possible. And secondly, I’ve still been able to carry out my commitments to peace and human rights and environmental quality and freedom and democracy and so forth.

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.

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 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.

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

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

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.

He who doesn’t pray to the Lord prays to the devil.

I do not doubt that we would become more useful if we praised God more, and others would join us, for they would see that God has blessed us.

If you know how to read, you have a complete education about life, then you know how to vote within a democracy. But if you don’t know how to read, you don’t know how to decide. That’s the great thing about our country – we’re a democracy of readers, and we should keep it that way.

This young century will be liberty’s century.

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.

Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.

Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.

Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.

Well the protester I think is a very powerful thing. It’s basically a mechanism of democracy that, along with capitalism, scientific innovation, those things have built the modern world. And it’s wonderful that the new tools have empowered that protestor so that state secrets, bad developments are not hidden anymore.

A man without a vote is man without protection.

Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power.

Worship is transcendent wonder.

I serve God.

Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.

Democracy passes into despotism.

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

I have been as sincere a worshipper of Aurora as the Greeks.

I grew up in San Francisco. And so I’m informed in a certain kind of way about, you know, believing in democracy and believing in America. And I’m a very ardent patriot.

Tyranny naturally arises out of democracy.

The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.

In Republics, the great danger is, that the majority may not sufficiently respect the rights of the minority.

I confess I enjoy democracy immensely. It is incomparably idiotic, and hence incomparably amusing.

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

Democracy is only a dream: it should be put in the same category as Arcadia, Santa Claus, and Heaven.

Democracy is the road to socialism.

I would just like to say something, ladies and gentlemen. Something that I think is very important. It is that, you, we – we own this country. We – we own it. It is not you owning it, and not politicians owning it. Politicians are employees of ours.

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.