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Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Political literature18 quotes
The basis of a democratic state is liberty. — Aristotle · 350 BCWhat we may be witnessing is not just the end of the Cold War but the end of history as such: that is, the end point of man's ideological evolution and the universalism of Western liberal democracy. — Francis Fukuyama · 1989Thus not only does democracy make every man forget his ancestors, but it hides his descendants and separates his contemporaries from him; it throws him back forever upon himself alone and threatens in the end to confine him entirely within the solitude of his own heart. — Alexis de Tocqueville · 1840Democratic nations care but little for what has been, but they are haunted by visions of what will be; in this direction their unbounded imagination grows and dilates beyond all measure.... Democracy, which shuts the past against the poet, opens the future before him. — Alexis de Tocqueville · 1840Free election of masters does not abolish the masters or the slaves. — Herbert Marcuse · 1964For 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 · 350 BCAll 18 quotes →Political speech15 quotes
Parties must ever exist in a free country. — Edmund Burke · 1775A monarchy is a merchantman which sails well, but will sometimes strike on a rock, and go to the bottom; a republic is a raft which will never sink, but then your feet are always in the water. — Fisher Ames · 1795What other form of government, indeed, can so well deserve our esteem and love? — John Adams · 1797Our constitution is named a democracy, because it is in the hands not of the few but of the many. But our laws secure equal justice for all in their private disputes, and our public opinion welcomes and honors talent in every branch of achievement, not for any sectional reason but on grounds of excellence alone. And as we give free play to all in our public life, so we care the same spirit into our daily relations with one another... Open and friendly in our private intercourse, in our public acts we keep strictly within the control of law. We acknowledge the restraint of authority, and to the laws, more especially to those which offer protection to the oppressed and those unwritten ordinances whose transgression brings admitted shame. — Pericles · 430 BCThe democratic aspiration is no mere recent phase in human history. It is human history. It permeated the ancient life of early peoples. It blazed anew in the Middle Ages. It was written in Magna Charta. — Franklin D. Roosevelt · 1941Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgement; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion. — Edmund Burke · 1774All 15 quotes →Philosophical literature6 quotes
Democracy passes into despotism. — Socrates · 375 BCThe basis of a democratic state is liberty. — Aristotle · 350 BCDemocracy, which is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike. — Socrates · 375 BCFor 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 · 350 BCIn the strict sense of the term, a true democracy has never existed, and never will exist. — Jean-Jacques Rousseau · 1762Democracy is a method of finding proximate solutions for insoluble problems. — Reinhold Niebuhr · 1944Legal writing3 quotes
Campaign promises are-by long democratic tradition-the least binding form of human commitment. — Antonin Scalia · 2002In a democratic society like ours, relief must come through an aroused popular conscience that sears the conscience of the people's representatives. — Felix Frankfurter · 1962Right conclusions are more likely to be gathered out of a multitude of tongues, than through any kind of authoritative selection. To many this is, and will always be, folly; but we have staked upon it our all. — Learned Hand · 1943Economic literature2 quotes
No famine has ever taken place in the history of the world in a functioning democracy. — Amartya Sen · 1999Bureaucracy is not an obstacle to democracy but an inevitable complement to it. — Joseph Schumpeter · 1942Historical literature2 quotes
Our constitution is named a democracy, because it is in the hands not of the few but of the many. But our laws secure equal justice for all in their private disputes, and our public opinion welcomes and honors talent in every branch of achievement, not for any sectional reason but on grounds of excellence alone. And as we give free play to all in our public life, so we care the same spirit into our daily relations with one another... Open and friendly in our private intercourse, in our public acts we keep strictly within the control of law. We acknowledge the restraint of authority, and to the laws, more especially to those which offer protection to the oppressed and those unwritten ordinances whose transgression brings admitted shame. — Pericles · 430 BCBureaucracy is not an obstacle to democracy but an inevitable complement to it. — Joseph Schumpeter · 1942Biography1 quote
Elections of any kind are fucking bourgeois affectation. — Cleve Jones · 2008Biography (film)1 quote
Elections of any kind are fucking bourgeois affectation. — Cleve Jones · 2008Black comedy1 quote
You see, I believe in the voters. They understand that elections aren't just popularity contests. They know this country was built by people just like me who work very hard and don't have everything handed to them on a silver spoon. — Tracy Flick · 1999Comedy1 quote
You see, I believe in the voters. They understand that elections aren't just popularity contests. They know this country was built by people just like me who work very hard and don't have everything handed to them on a silver spoon. — Tracy Flick · 1999Drama (film)1 quote
You see, I believe in the voters. They understand that elections aren't just popularity contests. They know this country was built by people just like me who work very hard and don't have everything handed to them on a silver spoon. — Tracy Flick · 1999Satire1 quote
For who can be secure of private right,
If sovereign sway may be dissolved by might?
Nor is the people's judgement always true:
The most may err as grossly as the few. — John Dryden · 1681