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Decades, if not centuries are normally required for people to acquire the necessary disciplines and habits [for democracy]. In Britain, the road [to democratic government] took seven centuries to traverse.

— Jeane Kirkpatrick Dictatorships and Double Standards (1979)

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More quotes by Jeane Kirkpatrick

Russia is playing chess, while we are playing Monopoly. The only question is whether they will checkmate us before we bankrupt them.

Americans need to face the truth about themselves, no matter how pleasant it is.

Neither nature, experience, nor probability informs these lists of "entitlements", which are subject to no constraints except those of the mind and appetite of their authors.

No idea holds greater sway in the minds of educated Americans that the belief that it is possible to democratize governments anytime and anywhere under any circumstances .

Dictatorships and Double Standards (1979)

The speed with which armies collapse, bureaucracies abdicate, and social structures dissolve once the autocrat is removed frequently surprises American Policy makers.

Dictatorships and Double Standards (1979)

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