Democratic Quotes

500+ Sourced quotes

The pyramids were built for pharaohs on the happy theory that they could take their stuff with them. Versailles was built for kings on the theory that they should live surrounded by the finest stuff. The Mall of America is built on the premise that we should all be able to afford this stuff. It may be a shallow culture, but it's by-God democratic. Sneer if you dare; this is something new in world history.

Coherently democratic authority carries the conviction that true discipline does not exist in the muteness of those who have been silenced but in the stirrings of those who have been challenged, in the doubt of those who have been prodded, and in the hopes of those who have been awakened.

The unhealthy gap between what we preach in America and what we often practice creates a moral dry rot that eats at the very foundation of our democratic ideals and values.

I believe that a guarantee of public access to government information is indispensable in the long run for any democratic society.... if officials make public only what they want citizens to know, then publicity becomes a sham and accountability meaningless.

Popular privileges are consistent with a state of society in which there is great inequality of position. Democratic rights, on the contrary, demand that there should be equality of condition as the fundamental basis of the society they regulate.

Benjamin Disraeli

As if paralyzed by the national fear of ideas, the democratic distrust of whatever strikes beneath the prevailing platitudes, it evades all resolute and honest dealing with what, after all, must be every healthy literature's elementary materials.

I believe that a prosperous, democratic Pakistan will be a steadfast partner for America, a peaceful neighbor for India, and a force for freedom and moderation in the Arab world.

What you're seeing is the emergence of Trump Democrats – you know, Democrats who realize that Democratic policies have failed them, that Hillary Clinton and these Democrats continue to be full of hot air, and they want substance. And they know that Donald Trump is a man who has built an empire, this business empire that is just incredible. And he has hired Americans for jobs, and he has employed folks, whereas his opponent has never written a check, or signed a paycheck for anyone, you know, because she's worked for the government, and has never really created jobs, and knows how to do that.

Omarosa Manigault

The failure of the Government to enforce democratic practices and to protect minorities in its own capital makes its expressed concern for national minorities abroad somewhat specious, and its interference in the domestic affairs of other countries very premature.

Charles Hamilton Houston

When we consider the close connection between science and industrial development on the one hand, and between literary and aesthetic cultivation and an aristocratic social organization on the other, we get light on the opposition between technical scientific studies and refining literary studies. We have before us the need of overcoming this separation in education if society is to be truly democratic.

A certain secret jealousy of the British Minister is always lurking in the breast of every American Senator, if he is truly democratic; for democracy, rightly understood, is the government of the people, by the people, for the benefit of Senators, and there is always a danger that the British Minister may not understand this political principle as he should.

Democratic institutions generally give men a lofty notion of their country and themselves.

Alexis de Tocqueville

Education is 'the guardian genius of our democracy.' Nothing really means more to our future, not our military defenses, not our missiles or our bombers, not our production economy, not even our democratic system of government. For all of these are worthless if we lack the brain power to support and sustain them.

Lyndon B. Johnson

It's a pity I am so impatient and careless, as any ordinary person could learn all the techniques of photography in a week. It is the democratic art, i.e. technical skill is practically eliminated - the more foolproof cameras become with focusing and exposure gadgets the better - and artistic quality depends only on choice of subject.

In attacking the young, the liberal, and the black, Daley was in the mainstream of America's mass prejudices. The Democratic party may have suffered by his actions, but Daley came out...even more popular than before because bust their heads was the mood of the land and Daley had swung the biggest club.

The utilities and facilities of major corporations can be confiscated and given to democratic collectives

Great Art is collaborative but not democratic. It's OK to be the boss

A community is democratic only when the humblest and the weakest person can enjoy the highest civil, economic, and social rights that the biggest and most powerful possess.

A. Philip Randolph

Russia has never in its history encountered such determination, such a high democratic spirit and spirit for freedom. In terms of spirit, of understanding, a totalitarian Russia cannot defeat Ukraine.

On the the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

Viktor Yushchenko

In France, there is something special in the air: the smell of fires on barricades, the smoke of tear gas, the anger built upon decades of inequality, injustice and despair for most. Among the Gilets Jaunes [Yellow vests movement], many understand intuitively that the current democratic process is dead, and therefore the only option is the occupation of streets and roads.

Gilbert Mercier

Extinction Rebellion are carrying a message we all need to hear. They won't be silenced by a police crackdown, nor should they be in a free democratic society.

This is a new era. As campaigners, we used to say, 'the rules are bad and in the interests of the rich'. But now we are clinging on to any rules at all. Those people [who populate] the power structures that we have grown up with have not grasped what is going on. Power has just vanished [from democratic institutions].

Molly Scott Cato

In selecting cadres, particularly team leaders, it is necessity to propound'the democratic spirit, take the mass line, refrain from listening, believing, liking or detesting any one side or blindly trusting one's own special views. There must be a healthy system to govern the appointment and dismissal of cadres so that the populace have the power to elect and dismiss the personnel serving them.

To the guests who had attended the meeting of the Women's International Democratic Federation:

I wish you health and victory in the struggle for peace and justice. Let us enjoy a happy life under the peaceful sunshine.

Soong Ching-ling

Yet in a society of conflicting interests the only democratic way in which matters can be improved is through politics, and politics means the compromising of extremes in order to achieve that notorious half loaf which the passionate and the outraged never find sufficient.