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Do not treat an opponent of a policy as if he were therefore a personal enemy or an enemy of the country or a concealed enemy of democracy.

— Sidney Hook

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Democracy

More quotes by Sidney Hook

To silence criticism is to silence freedom.

Anti-Semitism was rife in almost all varieties of socialism.

The cardinal sin, when we are looking for truth of fact or wisdom of policy, is refusal to discuss, or action which blocks discussion.

Do not hesitate to admit lack of knowledge or suspend judgment if evidence is not decisive either way.

Since a good cause may be defended by bad arguments, after answering the bad arguments for another's position present positive evidence for your own.

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Democracy is the wholesome and pure air without which a socialist public organization cannot live a full-blooded life.

Mikhail Gorbachev

The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class shall represent and repress them in parliament!

Vladimir Lenin The State and Revolution (1917)

The law itself is the instrument of the ruling class; hence it is a logical impossibility for another class to assume power legally.

Oliver Cox Caste, Class, and Race: A Study in Social Dynamics (1948)

The whole dream of democracy is to raise the proletarian to the level of bourgeois stupidity.

Gustave Flaubert

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Sidney Hook (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.