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Democracy Quotes

Barack Obama and the Nigerian president Bola Tinubu have the most entries, with H. L. Mencken and Franklin Roosevelt behind them, so a lot of the page is speeches. For the dry material go to Mencken in Smart Set (1910), who called democracy the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard; Shaw’s Maxims for Revolutionists (1903), on election by the incompetent many instead of appointment by the corrupt few; and Disraeli’s Lothair (1870).

“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch” is credited to Benjamin Franklin and flagged misattributed. The earliest version in the notes is a Usenet post from 23 April 1990. The line that democracy is the most vile form of government, credited to Madison, is flagged too.

Random quote on Democracy

Most quoted on democracy:

Congress ought to wipe the stain of barbaric lynching from the banners of a free and orderly representative democracy.

Warren G. Harding

Some observers feel it is harder to change public opinion in democracies than it is to change policies in totalitarian countries.

Joseph Nye Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History (2006)

Quite simply, a free press promotes peace; creating a universally free press would promote universal peace. The bridge between the two is democracy.

Rudolph Rummel

I am opposed to pure democracy precisely because I am a liberal.

Gaetano Mosca

Only in a democracy the people are free to choose their leaders. Without democracy there is no President Joko Widodo.

Joko Widodo

"Women’s leadership in parliament is not a favor; it is a fundamental aspect of inclusive democracy and effective governance."

Donatille Mukabalisa

And when you go against the Constitution and create an insurrection on the Capitol to overturn an election, that is not democracy.

Norma Anderson

Get involved in your country. Democracy is a 24 hour responsibility.

Soli Philander

Democracy is based upon the conviction that there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people.

Harry Emerson Fosdick

Democrats are always happy. Democracy is a sort of laughing gas. It will not cure anything, perhaps, but it unquestionably stops the pain.

H. L. Mencken

I accept this idea of democracy. I am all for trying it out.

Zora Neale Hurston

I am crazy about the idea of Democracy. I want to see how it feels.

Zora Neale Hurston

The end result of complete cellular representation is cancer. Democracy is cancerous, and bureaus are its cancer.

William S. Burroughs Naked Lunch (1959)

It is not easy to speak on the coming victory of democracy at a moment when the aggressive brutality of fascism seems to be so distressingly triumphant.

Thomas Mann The Coming Victory Of Democracy (1938)

I used to think that science would save us, and science certainly tried. But we can't stand any more tremendous explosions, either for or against democracy.

Kurt Vonnegut Bennington College address (1970)

America does not at the moment have a functioning democracy.

Jimmy Carter

We promised the Iraqi people freedom, democracy, security and a new and far better life.

Anthony Zinni The Battle for Peace (2006)

To say that it 'unconstitutional' to outlaw and prosecute such a movement is merely to admit that democracies can devise no legal means to protect themselves.

Dorothy Thompson The Truth about Communism (1948)

We're on the verge of civil war in Northern Ireland. Why? Because if you take away the forums of democracy you don't have anything left.

Ian Paisley After being forcibly carried out from the Assembly building by police (1986)

I swear to the Lord
I still can't see
Why Democracy means
Everybody but me.

Langston Hughes

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