The ballot is stronger than the bullet.

Democracy passes into despotism.

We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

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

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

That fatal drollery called a representative government.

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.

My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.

Democracy is the road to socialism.

The U.S. and its allies will do anything they can to prevent authentic democracy in the Arab world.

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

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.

The more people who are dependent on government handouts, the more votes the left can depend on for an ever-expanding welfare state.

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

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.

Thinking isn’t agreeing or disagreeing. That’s voting.

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.

Some say we should not engage in activism. Instead we should leave everything to our politicians and just vote for a change instead. But what do we do when there is no political will? What do we do when the politics needed are nowhere in sight?

The government is us; we are the government, you and I.

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

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

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.

It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.

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!‘

America is the student who defies the odds to become the first in a family to go to college – the citizen who defies the cynics and goes out there and votes – the young person who comes out of the shadows to demand the right to dream. That’s what America is about.

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.

Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets.

It’s actually very easy for democracy to disappear.

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.

I believe with all my heart that America remains ‚the great idea‘ that inspires the world. It is a privilege to be born here. It is an honor to become a citizen here. It is a gift to raise your family here, to vote here, and to live here.

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

Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around.

The world is weary of statesmen whom democracy has degraded into politicians.

My Democratic friends just can’t accept the fact that the American people chose Donald Trump to be president – it’s called democracy. My advice to them, and I say this gently: Fill out a ‚Hurt Feelings Report‘ and let’s move on.

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

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.

If the United States of America or Britain is having elections, they don’t ask for observers from Africa or from Asia. But when we have elections, they want observers.

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

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

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

This young century will be liberty’s century.

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.‘

Self-government can succeed only through an instructed electorate.

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

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

Our friends at the Republican convention were more than happy to talk about everything they think is wrong with America, but they didn’t have much to say about how they’d make it right. They want your vote, but they don’t want you to know their plan.

Democracy is a daring concept – a hope that we’ll be best governed if all of us participate in the act of government. It is meant to be a conversation, a place where the intelligence and local knowledge of the electorate sums together to arrive at actions that reflect the participation of the largest possible number of people.

Are you a politician asking what your country can do for you or a zealous one asking what you can do for your country? If you are the first, then you are a parasite; if the second, then you are an oasis in the desert.

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 think our democracy has it exactly right: two terms, eight years. It’s enough. Because it’s important to have one foot in reality when you have access to this kind of power.

One of the best predictors of policy around is Thomas Ferguson’s investment theory of politics, as he calls it – very outstanding political economist – which essentially – I mean, to say it in a sentence, he describes elections as occasions in which groups of investors coalesce and invest to control the state.

A President needs political understanding to run the government, but he may be elected without it.

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.

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

Africans require, want, the franchise on the basis of one man one vote. They want political independence.

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

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

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

Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty.