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Democracy
Quotes Page
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The first and continuing
argument for the curtailment of working hours and the raising of the minimum age
was that education was necessary in a democracy and working children could not
attend school.
-- Grace
Abbott |
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We
have learned to say that the good must be extended to all of society before it
can be held secure by any one person or any one class. But we have not yet learned
to add to that statement, that unless all [people] and all classes contribute
to a good, we cannot even be sure that it is worth having.
-- Jane
Addams |
| "Democracy"
is one of the most important principles for a better world. In its truest sense,
a democracy is a community in which all members have an equal say in the running
of that community. Unfortunately in reality, democratic societies have fallen
short of this ideal. Nevertheless, because of its very nature, once a democracy
is established, its citizens can work together to make their society more and
more democratic, if they choose to do so.
-- Robert Alan Silverstein |  |
The
USA was founded in the name of democracy, equality and individual freedom, but
is failing to deliver the fundamental promise of protecting rights for all.
-- Amnesty International
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"No
one is born a good citizen; no nation is born a democracy. Rather, both are processes
that continue to evolve over a lifetime. Young people must be included from birth.
A society that cuts off from its youth severs its lifeline."
-- Kofi
Annan "Education
is a human right with immense power to transform. On its foundation rest the cornerstones
of freedom, democracy and sustainable human development."
~ Kofi
Annan | 
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“If
liberty and equality, as is thought by some are chiefly to be found in democracy,
they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the
utmost.”
-- Aristotle
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...democracy
cannot survive overpopulation...
-- Isaac
Asimov |  |
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So
long as we have enough people in this country willing to fight for their rights,
we'll be called a democracy.
-- Roger
Nash Baldwin |
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Now
the first step has to be taken, the step towards democracy. This step is full
of risks, and requires trust on all sides. We don't know where it will lead. But
if we just stand still, we will have no chance of escaping the violence.
--
Daniel Barenboim
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At
the heart of the WTO is an assault on everything left standing in the commons,
in the public realm. Everything is now for sale. Even those areas of life that
we once considered sacred like health and education, food and water and air and
seeds and genes and a heritage. It is all now for sale. Economic freedom -- not
democracy, and not ecological stewardship -- is the defining metaphor of the WTO
and its central goal is humanity's mastery of the natural world through its total
commodification.
-- Maude
Barlow |
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"Anti-democracy...is
a virus that exists, and pro-democracy is the antibody to that virus, and I think
we have to become vigilant, and we have to stay on top of the issues of democracy
and freedom."
-- Harry
Belafonte |
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The
primal principle of democracy
is the worth and dignity of the individual.
-- Edward
Bellamy
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Changing the structure and rules of the global economy will require a mass movement
based on messages of compassion, justice, and equality, as well as collaborative
and democratic processes ... If we stay positive, inclusive, and democratic, we
have a truly historic opportunity to build a global movement for social justice.
-- Medea
Benjamin |
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Democracy
is necessary to peace and to undermining the forces of terrorism.
-- Benazir
Bhutto Democracy
needs support and the best support for democracy comes from other democracies.
Democratic nations should come together in an association designed to help each
other and promote what is a universal value -- democracy.
-- Benazir
Bhutto |  |
Democracy is the
ultimate, positive revolution because it gives each and every individual the power
to control their lives. And we can work together to create a just, sustainable
world.
-- Bill Blackman
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Democracy
is an objective. Democratization is a process. Democratization
serves the cause of peace because it offers the possibility
of justice and of progressive change without force.
-- Boutros
Boutros-Ghali
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To
win the cause we all believe in, the spread of true democracy all over the world,
we need to win by example, not just with speeches but by example; not just with
military might but by gaining the respect of the world.
-- Barbara
Boxer | "We
can have a democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated
in the hands of a few, but we cannot have both."
-- Justice Louis D. Brandeis
"The only
title in our democracy superior to that of President is the title of citizen."
Justice Louis D. Brandeis
There can be no
real growth without healthy populations. No sustainable development without tackling
disease and malnutrition. No international security without assisting crisis-ridden
countries. And no hope for the spread of freedom, democracy and human dignity
unless we treat health as a basic human right.
-- Gro
Brundtland |  |
Democracy
is not the law of the majority but the protection of the minority.
-- Albert
Camus
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Democracy
is not just a question of having a vote. It consists of strengthening each citizen’s
possibility and capacity to participate in the deliberations involved in life
in society.
-- Fernando
Cardoso It
is impossible to build enduring institutions without solid values. For us, the
fundamental value is that associated with democracy.
-- Fernando
Cardoso Let
us continue to strive together for a more inclusive, democratic, and peaceful
future for us all.
-- Fernando
Cardoso | ...
the 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political
importance: The growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth
of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy.
-- Alex Carey, Australian social scientist
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There is not such a cradle
of democracy upon the earth as the Free Public Library, this republic of letters,
where neither rank, office, nor wealth receives the slightest consideration.
~ Andrew Carnegie
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Everybody
counts in applying democracy. And there will never be a true democracy until every
responsible and law-abiding adult in it, without regard to race, sex, color or
creed has his or her own inalienable and unpurchasable voice in government.
-- Carrie Chapman Catt |
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The
road to democracy may be winding and is like a river taking many curves, but eventually
the river will reach the ocean.
-- Chen
Shui-bian |
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The
real world of American society is one which it is
very misleading to call simply a democracy. Of course,
it is in a sense a democracy, but it is one in which
there are enormous inequities in the distribution
of power and force. For example, the entire commercial
and industrial system is in principle excluded from
the democratic process, including everything that
goes on within it -- Noam
Chomsky
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under
capitalism, we can't have democracy by definition.
Capitalism is a system in which the central institutions
of society are in principle under autocratic control.
--
Noam
Chomsky
In
this possibly terminal phase of human existence,
democracy and freedom are more than just ideals
to be valued - they may be essential to survival.
-- Noam
Chomsky
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The
most effective way to restrict democracy is to transfer decision-making from the
public arena to unaccountable institutions: kings and princes, priestly castes,
military juntas, party dictatorships, or modern corporations.
-- Noam
Chomsky
Representative
democracy, as in, say, the United States or Great Britain,
would be criticized by an anarchist of this school on two
grounds. First of all because there is a monopoly of power
centralized in the State, and secondly -and critically -
because representative democracy is limited to the political
sphere and in no serious way encroaches on the economic
sphere. Anarchists of this tradition have always held that
democratic control of one's productive life is at the core
of any serious human liberation, or, for that matter, of
any significant democratic practice. That is, as long as
individuals are compelled to rent themselves on the market
to those who are willing to hire them, as long as their
role in production is simply that of ancillary tools, then
there are striking elements of coercion and oppression that
make talk of democracy very limited, if even meaningful.
-- Noam Chomsky
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"Democracy
is just a word. You have to give it meaning. The US is not a democracy. Most Americans
do not vote. We haven't had a real choice for a long, long time now. Wealth rules.
Corporations rule. The US is a plutocracy -- government by wealthy people. Certain
people control multinational corporations. You couldn't get elected in the US
without lots of money."
-- Ramsey Clark |
"If
our modern world should be able to recapture this power, the earth's natural resources
and web of life would not be irrevocably wasted within the Twentieth century…..True
democracy founded in neighborhoods and reaching over the world become the realized
heaven on earth. And living peace, not just an interlude between wars, would be
born and would last through the ages."
-- John Collier
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“In
a democracy, the individual enjoys not only the ultimate power but carries the
ultimate responsibility.”
-- Norman
Cousins |
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I think it is absolutely essential in a democracy to have competition in the media,
a lot of competition, and we seem to be moving away from that.
-- Walter
Cronkite It
seems to rise again when the crisis times come, and this is a time of most severe
crisis, as we all know, not just for the history of the United States and the
survival indeed of our democracy, but for the future peace of the world. And never
before probably has the need for interfaith commitment been nearly as great as
it is at this very moment.
-- Walter
Cronkite |
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We
have a global economy that is not structured around democratizing and including
people in the decision-making. It's operated in secret.
-- Kevin
Danaher |
it
is necessary to stay on the march, to be on the journey, to work for peace wherever
we are at all times, because the liberty we cherish, which we would share with
the world, demands eternal vigilance. And democracy is no easy path, but those
of us who believe in it must be prepared to sacrifice in its cause more willingly
than those who are prepared to die in the wars of aggression. We, too, must be
dedicated to the cause of freedom.
-- Ossie
Davis |  |
When great
changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority
are wrong. The minority are right.
-- Eugene V. Debs |
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The
aim of education is to enable individuals to continue their education ... (and)
the object and reward of learning is continued capacity for growth. Now this idea
cannot be applied to all the members of a society except where intercourse of
man with man is mutual, and except where there is adequate provision for the reconstruction
of social habits and institutions by means of wide stimulation arising from equitably
distributed interests. And this means a democratic society.
-- John
Dewey |  |
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