Famous Quotes & Sayings

Noam Chomsky

There isn't much point arguing about the word "libertarian." It would make about as much sense to argue with an unreconstructed Stalinist about the word "democracy" - recall that they called what they'd constructed "peoples' democracies." The weird offshoot of ultra-right individualist anarchism that is called "libertarian" here happens to amount to advocacy of perhaps the worst kind of imaginable tyranny, namely unaccountable private tyranny. If they want to call that "libertarian," fine; after all, Stalin called his system "democratic." But why bother arguing about it?

Noam Chomsky

The more there is a need to talk about the ideals of democracy, the less democratic the system usually is.

John Ashcroft

We've got to understand that the whole nature of the way American democracy guards its freedom has been changed

Frank Herbert

Democracy is susceptible to being led astray by having scapegoats paraded in front of the electorate.

George Hamilton

Democracy has now become corrupted by the nature of the funders.

George Hamilton

Democracy, if it meant what our forefathers said, that would be great, but unfortunately it's been corrupted by this funding and funding of campaigns. There's a much better way to do it. There could be a small amount of money given by every taxpayer to be dedicated to candidates.

George H. W. Bush

It's too much show business and too much prompting, too much artificiality, and not really debates. They're rehearsed appearances.

Harold Bloom

To be a poet did not occur to me. It was indeed a threshold guarded by demons.

Ha-Joon Chang

Democracy is acceptable to neo-liberals only in so far as it does not contradict the free market.

Haile Selassie

Democracy, republics: What do these words signify?

Gustav Heinemann

Liberal democracy must finally become the vital element of our society.

H. G. Wells

The Athenian democracy suffered much from that narrowness of patriotism which is the ruin of all nations.

Jean Baudrillard

Democracy is the menopause of Western society, the Grand Climacteric of the body social. Fascism is its middle-aged lust.

Milos Forman

I tell you, in my opinion, the cornerstone of democracy is free press - that's the cornerstone.

That is not respecting our democracy, using the State Department as a concierge for foreign donations, not really respecting our American democracy.

Democracy: An institution in which the whole is equal to the scum of the parts.

Margaret Atwood

The fabric of democracy is always fragile everywhere because it depends on the will of citizens to protect it, and when they become scared, when it becomes dangerous for them to defend it, it can go very quickly.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

No tempest or conflagration, however great, is harder to quell than mob carried away by the novelty of power.

Ken Livingstone

If Voting Changed Anything They'd Abolish It

Margaret Thatcher

All attempts to destroy democracy by terrorism will fail. It must be business as usual.

Margaret Thatcher

I'm also very much aware that it is you who brought democracy to Chile, you set up a constitution suitable for democracy, you put it into effect, elections were held, and then, in accordance with the result, you stepped down.

Kate White

If Cosmo is Number 1 in China, can democracy be far behind?

Hunter S. Thompson

Democracy as a system has evolved into something that Thomas Jefferson didn't anticipate.

Howard Rheingold

You can't have an industrial revolution, you can't have democracies, you can't have populations who can govern themselves until you have literacy. The printing press simply unlocked literacy.

Howard Berman

Even before I was a Democrat, I was a Zionist.

Ibrahim Babangida

Informed by our sad experience of history, we require nothing short of a foundation for lasting democracy.

Byron Dorgan

The U.S. Constitution is the basic framework for the greatest democracy on Earth. Some of my colleagues find it easy to amend it. I don't.

Janet Erskine Stuart

Are democracy and poetry exclusive of one another and, if so, why?

Iqbal Sacranie

Our democratic values need to be upheld, not undermined.

Democracy and freedom are what extend the scope of peace and security.

Despite the tense security situation in Iraq, it is paramount that all those willing to help establish democracy in Iraq be mindful of the right of the media to exercise their profession freely,

Any democracy worth its salt should be strong enough to endure the most controversial speech.

Tony Blair

an important staging post on the journey of the people of Iraq toward a new future, one in which democracy replaces dictatorship, in which freedom replaces repression, and in which all the people of Iraq can look forward to the possibility and the hope of an Iraq that genuinely guarantees a future for people from whatever part of Iraq they come.