If the question could be put to a popular vote, I do not believe a single state would vote for the coming of Jesus to reign here as he reigns in heaven. I do not believe a single county, city, ward in this city, or a single precinct in this country would vote for his coming.… The Republican party would vote for the biggest blackguard on earth rather than for him. The Democrats would vote solidly against him. Even the Prohibitionists wouldn't want him here. I see some of you shaking your heads. Well, shake 'em. I'm talking facts.
—Dwight L. Moody
It is supposed to be part of the American tradition that if we want to step out of line, we step out of line. Democracy isn't falling in line behind the president. Democracy is for people to think independently, be skeptical of government, look around and try to find out what's going on. And if they find out that government is deceiving them, to speak out as loudly as they can.
—Howard Zinn
Think of a word as a pendulum instead of a fixed entity. A word can sweep by your ear and by its very sound suggest hidden meanings, preconscious associations. Listen to these words: blood, tranquil, democracy. You know what they mean literally but you have associations with those words that are cultural, as well as your own personal associations.
—Rita Mae Brown
I just don't know why they're shooting at us. All we want to do is bring them democracy and white bread. Transplant the American Dream. Freedom. Achievement. Hyperacidity. Affluence. Flatulence. Technology. Tension. The inalienable right to an early coronary sitting at your desk while plotting to stab your boss in the back.
—Alan Alda as Hawkeye on M*A*S*H
The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.
—Harper Lee
Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule—and both commonly succeed, and are right.
—H. L. Mencken
In democracy it's your vote that counts; In feudalism it's your count that votes.
—Mogens Jallberg
Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.
—George Bernard Shaw
Vote early and vote often.
—Al Capone
Self-criticism is the secret weapon of democracy, and candor and confession are good for the public soul
—Alan Corenk
Democracy consists of choosing your dictators, after they've told you what you think it is you want to hear.
—Aristotle
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.
—Art Spander
Democracy means government by discussion, but it is only effective if you can stop people talking.
—E. B. White
Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half the time.
—G. K. Chesterton
Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated.
—George Bernard Shaw