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.

The biggest problem that we have is that California is being run now by special interests. All of the politicians are not anymore making the moves for the people, but for special interests and we have to stop that.

America is a Nation with a mission – and that mission comes from our most basic beliefs. We have no desire to dominate, no ambitions of empire. Our aim is a democratic peace – a peace founded upon the dignity and rights of every man and woman.

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

Real liberty is neither found in despotism or the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments.

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.

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

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

There’s a lot of fuss on the Left about election irregularities, like, you know, the voting machines were tampered with, they didn’t count the votes right, and so on. That’s all accurate and of some importance, but of far more importance is the fact that elections just don’t take place, not in any meaningful sense of the term ‚election.‘

India is a democracy; it is in our DNA.

Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets.

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.

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.

I think members of the legislature, people who have to run for office, know the connection between money and influence on what laws get passed.

Up until the First World War, when people turned anti-German, Germany had been described by American political scientists as the model of democracy.

Our society is illuminated by the spiritual insights of the Hebrew prophets. America and Israel have a common love of human freedom, and they have a common faith in a democratic way of life.

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

Adultery is the application of democracy to love.

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

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.

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 vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.

Elections should be held on April 16th- the day after we pay our income taxes. That is one of the few things that might discourage politicians from being big spenders.

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

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

It’s time to stop thinking of the Republican Party as an exclusive club where your ideological card is checked at the door, and start thinking about how we can attract more solution-based leaders like Nathan Fletcher and Anthony Adams.

The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don’t have to waste your time voting.

In the 21st century, the countries that thrive will be the ones where citizens know their voices will be heard because the institutions are transparent.

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

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

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.

WWE asked me to be in the Hall of Fame, and I turned it down. You know why? They put Pete Rose in the wrestling Hall of Fame. This guy can’t even get into his own Hall of Fame.

A man without a vote is man without protection.

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

It’s actually very easy for democracy to disappear.

The government, whether state or central, is elected. That means we have a responsibility to elect the right kind of leaders.

You can never have a revolution in order to establish a democracy. You must have a democracy in order to have a revolution.

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.

The basis of our political system is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government.

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

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.

I will not run for president. No, nope, not going to do it.

Money has always been in politics. And I’m not sure you’d want money to be completely out of politics.

Freedom of opinion can only exist when the government thinks itself secure.

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

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

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.

What I worry about would be that you essentially have two chambers, the House and the Senate, but you have simply, majoritarian, absolute power on either side. And that’s just not what the founders intended.

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.

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

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?

There’s no way now for you to get a Democratic or Republican nomination without being able to raise $200 or $300 million or more. I would not be inclined to do that, and I would not be capable of doing it.

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.

I don’t see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves.

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

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

Our only real hope for democracy is that we get the money out of politics entirely and establish a system of publicly funded elections.

If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in government to the utmost.

Because of my parents‘ love of democracy, we came to America after being driven twice from our home in Czechoslovakia – first by Hitler and then by Stalin.

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.

Democracy is worth dying for, because it’s the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man.