¶ To me, the democratic system represents man’s best and brightest hope of self-fulfillment, of a life rich in promise and free from fear; the one hope, perhaps, for the complete development of the whole man. But I know, and learn more clearly every day, that we cannot keep our system strong and free by neglect, by taking it for granted, by giving it our second-best attention. We must be prepared, like the suitor in The Merchant of Venice — and, I might point out, the successful suitor — to give and hazard all we have.
— Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) First Lady of the US (1933-45), politician, diplomat, activist
“What Has Happened to the American Dream?” Atlantic Monthly (Apr 1961)
http://wist.info/roosevelt-eleanor/28085/
¶ Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.
— George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
(Attributed)
http://wist.info/shaw-george-bernard/3608/
¶ A democracy cannot function effectively when its constituent members believe laws are being bought and sold.
— John Paul Stevens (b. 1920) American lawyer, US Supreme Court Justice (1975-2010)
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. (2010) [Dissenting]
http://wist.info/stevens-john-paul/22059/
¶ Self-criticism is the secret weapon of democracy.
— Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Nomination Acceptance Speech, Democratic National Convention, Chicago (26 Jul 1952)
http://wist.info/stevenson-adlai-ewing/8415/
¶ The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.
— Charles-Lewis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) French political philosopher
The Spirit of the Laws (1748)
¶ Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.
— Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971) American theologian and clergyman
The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness, foreward (1944)
http://wist.info/niebuhr-reinhold/2973/
¶ Democracy is a process by which the people are free to choose the man who will get the blame.
— Lawrence J. Peter (1919-1990) American educator, management theorist
(Attributed)
http://wist.info/peter-lawrence-j/3124/
¶ What higher obligation does a President have than to explain his intentions to the people and persuade them that the direction he wishes to go is right? Politics in a democracy is, at the end, an educational process.
— Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (1917-2007) American historian, author, social critic
“A Clinton Card, So Far,” New York Times (11 Apr 1993)
http://wist.info/schlessinger-arthur/18625/
¶ DOTTY: It’s not the voting that’s democracy, it’s the counting.
— Tom Stoppard (b. 1937) Czech-English playwright and screenwriter
Jumpers, Act I (1972)
http://wist.info/stoppard-tom/3746/
(see also Stalin, http://wist.info/stalin-josef/3700/)
¶ Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.
— E.B. White (1899-1985) American author, critic, humorist [Elwyn Brooks White]
“Talk of the Town,” New Yorker (3 Jul 1943)
http://wist.info/white-eb/4147/
¶ Democracy means despair of ever finding any heroes to govern you, and contentedly putting up with the want of them.
— Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Past and Present (1843)
http://wist.info/carlyle-thomas/725/
¶ Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.
— Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
Speech, House of Commons (11 Nov 1947)
http://wist.info/churchill-winston/5216/
Churchill, Winston – Speech, House of Commons (11 Nov 1947) | WIST
Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it
