Quoty: quotes tagged with 'democracy'

We the people are the rightful masters of both ...

We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.

Author: Abraham Lincoln, Source: Unknown
Saved by jordy in government revolution democracy wethepeople

China and India combined to produce nearly half...

China and India combined to produce nearly half the world's economic output in 1820 compared to just 1.8% for the U.S. Our remarkable growth since 1820 has benefited from democratic institutions, a belief in capitalism, private property rights, an entrepreneurial culture, abundant resources, openness to foreign investment, the best universities, immigration and relatively transparent markets.
Author: Michael Milken, Source: http://gongszeto.squarespace.com/journal/2008/1/21/comparative...
Saved by richardkmiller in education capitalism democracy entrepreneurship

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible w...

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
Author: John F. Kennedy, Source: White House speech, 1962
Saved by cboyack in war revolution change activism democracy peacae

What I want to fix your attention on is the vas...

What I want to fix your attention on is the vast overall movement towards the discrediting, and finally the elimination, of every kind of human excellence � moral, cultural, social or intellectual. And is it not pretty to notice how �democracy� (in the incantatory sense) is now doing for us the work that was once done by the most ancient dictatorships, and by the same methods? The basic proposal of the new education is to be that dunces and idlers must not be made to feel inferior to intelligent and industrious pupils. That would be �undemocratic.� Children who are fit to proceed may be artificially kept back, because the others would get a trauma by being left behind. The bright pupil thus remains democratically fettered to his own age group throughout his school career, and a boy who would be capable of tackling Aeschylus or Dante sits listening to his coeval�s [of the same age] attempts to spell out A CAT SAT ON A MAT. We may reasonably hope for the virtual abolition of education when �I�m as good as you� has fully had its way. All incentives to learn and all penalties for not learning will vanish. The few who might want to learn will be prevented; who are they to overtop their fellows? And anyway, the teachers � or should I say nurses? � will be far too busy reassuring the dunces and patting them on the back to waste any time on real teaching. We shall no longer have to plan and toil to spread imperturbable conceit and incurable ignorance among men.
Author: C. S. Lewis, Source: Screwtape Letters
Saved by cboyack in ignorance education excellence equality knowledge children school democracy

As democracy is perfected, the office of the pr...

As democracy is perfected, the office of the president represents, more and more closely the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.
Author: H. L. Mencken, Source: Baltimore Sun, July 26, 1920
Saved by cboyack in president leader democracy representation representative

A pure democracy can admit no cure for the misc...

A pure democracy can admit no cure for the mischiefs of faction. A common passion or interest will be felt by a majority, and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party. Hence it is, that democracies have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have, in general, been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.
Author: James Madison, Source: Federalist Papers
Saved by cboyack in liberty government democracy

...democracies have ever been spectacles of tur...

...democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths. Theoretic politicians, who have patronized this species of government, have erroneously supposed that by reducing mankind to a perfect equality in their political rights, they would, at the same time, be perfectly equalized and assimilated in their possessions, their opinions, and their passions.

A republic, by which I mean a government in which the scheme of representation takes place, opens a different prospect, and promises the cure for which we are seeking.
Author: James Madison, The Federalist No. 10, Source: http://www.constitution.org/fed/federa10.htm
Saved by rpage in government democracy republic

When once a republic is corrupted, there is no ...

When once a republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.
Author: Montesquieu, Source: Spirit of the Laws, VIII,c.12
Saved by cboyack in constitution government problem solution principle evil correction corruption democracy republic

Ours must be a leadership democracy administere...

Ours must be a leadership democracy administered by the intelligent minority who know how to regiment and guide the masses.

Is this government by propaganda? Call it, if you prefer, government by education. But education, in the academic sense of the word, is not sufficient. It must be enlightened expert propaganda through the creation of circumstances, through the high-spotting of significant events, and the dramatization of important issues. The statesman of the future will thus be enabled to focus the public mind on crucial points of policy and regiment a vast, heterogeneous mass of voters to clear understanding and intelligent action.
Author: Edward Bernays, Source: Propaganda, p. 127-8
Saved by cboyack in politics government education propaganda leader circumstance democracy manipulation

The great political problem in our modern democ...

The great political problem in our modern democracy is how to induce our leaders to lead.... No serious sociologist any longer believes that the voice of the people expresses any divine or specially wise and lofty idea. The voice of the people expresses the mind of the people, and that mind is made up for it by the group leaders in whom it believes and by those persons who understand the manipulation of public opinion. It is compose of inherited prejudices and symbols and clich�s and verbal formulas supplied to them by the leaders.
Author: Edward Bernays, Source: Propaganda, p. 109
Saved by cboyack in politics government propaganda lie public leader opinion democracy conformity

It has been said that democracy is the worst fo...

It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.

Author: Sir Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965), Source: NA
Saved by uuaa in government democracy

The people who cast the votes decide nothing. T...

The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.

Author: Joseph Stalin (1879 - 1953), Source: NA
Saved by uuaa in democracy

A citizen of America will cross the ocean to fi...

A citizen of America will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but won't cross the street to vote in a national election.
Author: Bill Vaughn, Source: Unknown
Saved by cboyack in america war vote election democracy citizenship

People often say that, in a democracy, decision...

People often say that, in a democracy, decisions are made by a majority of the people. Of course, that is not true. Decisions are made by a majority of those who make themselves heard and who vote -- a very different thing.
Author: Walter H. Judd, Source: Unknown
Saved by cboyack in vote election majority decision democracy

Individual rights are not subject to a public v...

Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).
Author: Ayn Rand, Source: Unknown
Saved by cboyack in liberty freedom rights vote individual majority minority democracy