Quotes on Democracy

The western mindset erroneously equates a political system of multi-party democracy with high-quality institutions... the two are not synonymous.

In vain they seek to hide behind the flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the flag and the Constitution stand for. Now, as always, they stand for democracy, not tyranny; for freedom, not subjection; and against a dictatorship by mob rule and the over-privileged alike.

It's not the voting that's democracy; it's the counting.

Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated.

The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."

The ballot is stronger than the bullet.

Through money, democracy becomes its own destroyer, after money has destroyed intellect.

I wanted to get far away from those who believed in cruelty, so then I went to France, a land of true freedom, democracy, equality and fraternity.

While democracy must have its organization and controls, its vital breath is individual liberty.

The spirit of democracy cannot be established in the midst of terrorism, whether governmental or popular.

Nor is the people's judgment always true: the most may err as grossly as the few.

Art is not a democracy. People don't get to vote on how it ends.

Education is a human right with immense power to transform. On its foundation rest the cornerstones of freedom, democracy and sustainable human development.

Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.

Between social reforms and revolution there exists for the social democracy an indissoluble tie. The struggle for reforms is its means; the social revolution, its aim.

The G7 - and earlier, the G8 - were a group of countries that shared the same values with regard to freedom and democracy, and through the annexation of Crimea, Russia made it clear at a certain point that these values of keeping the peace, integrity of the borders of a country were not being respected.

The boundaries of democracy have to be widened so as to include economic equality also. This is the great revolution through which we are all passing.

Between a balanced republic and a democracy, the difference is like that between order and chaos.

Anywhere, anytime ordinary people are given the chance to choose, the choice is the same: freedom, not tyranny; democracy, not dictatorship; the rule of law, not the rule of the secret police.

Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state...

On account of being a democracy and run by the people, we are the only nation in the world that has to keep a government four years, no matter what it does.