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But Lincoln also understood that after such a decision, a democracy should seek peace through a new unity. For a democracy can keep alive only if the settlement of old difficulties clears the ground and transfers energies to face new responsibilities. Never can it have as much ability and purpose as it needs in that striving; the end of battle does not end the infinity of those needs. That is why Lincoln — commander of a people as well as of an army — asked that his battle end "with malice toward none, with charity for all."

— Franklin D. Roosevelt Address at the dedication of the memorial on the Gettysburg battlefield (1938)

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Democracy

More quotes by Franklin D. Roosevelt

This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly.

We defend and we build a way of life, not for America alone, but for all mankind.

On this tenth day of June, 1940, the hand that held the dagger has struck it into the back of its neighbor.

Freedom to learn is the first necessity of guaranteeing that man himself shall be self-reliant enough to be free.

Throughout the world, change is the order of the day.

State of the Union address (1935)

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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

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