Democratic Country Quotes

When a stupid government is elected in a democratic country, the best thing about this is that you learn the number of stupid people in that country! ~ Mehmet Murat Ildan

Imagine if the United States, in its war against Hitler, had said to Stalin: we don't want your support until you make your country democratic. ~ Natan Sharansky

I think it is dangerous to confuse the idea of democracy with elections. Just because you have elections doesn't mean you're a democratic country. They're a very vitally important part of a democracy. But there are other things that ought to function as checks and balances. If elections are the only thing that matter, then people are going to resort to anything to win that election. ~ Arundhati Roy

We are a strong democratic country. ~ Aleksander Kwasniewski

In democratic countries, however opulent a man is supposed to be, he is almost always discontented with his fortune, because he finds that he is less rich than his father was, and he fears that his sons will be less rich than himself. ~ Alexis De Tocqueville

It's true that most American citizens think of themselves as living in a democratic country. But when was the last time that any Americans actually sat down and came to a collective decision? Maybe if they are ordering pizzas, but basically never. ~ David Graeber

The plan shows that the twenty million people in the German democratic Republic and in the democratic sector of Berlin think only of peace, and that they are working for freedom and peaceful prosperity. ~ Walter Ulbricht

In a democratic country, when a man is accused, he's accused from a document issued by the public attorney. ~ Jacques Verges

But you can live in the most democratic country on earth, and if you're lazy, obtuse or servile within yourself, you're not free. ~ Ignazio Silone

I see Turkey's future as being in Europe, as one of many prosperous, tolerant, democratic countries. ~ Orhan Pamuk

India is a democratic country & anyone can become a PM. ~ Narendra Modi

Pakistan is a peace-loving, democratic country. ~ Malala Yousafzai

When the inhabitant of a democratic country compares himself individually with all those about him, he feels with pride that he is the equal of any one of them; but when he comes to survey the totality of his fellows, and to place himself in contrast to so huge a body, he is instantly overwhelmed by the sense of his own insignificance and weakness. ~ Alexis De Tocqueville

In democratic countries, knowledge of how to combine is the mother of all other forms of knowledge; on its progress depends that of all the others. ~ Alexis De Tocqueville

The modern State, whether in a totalitarian or a democratic country, has far too much power, and we are probably right to fear it. ~ Anthony Burgess

I don't think generally politician come from democratic country. I think not that thinking. But sometimes little bit short-sighted. They are mainly looking for their next vote. ~ Dalai Lama

The truth is that the United States doesn't need, and shouldn't have, a debt ceiling. Every other democratic country, with the exception of Denmark, does fine without one. ~ James Surowiecki

In England it is bad manners to be clever, to assert something confidently. It may be your own personal view that two and two make four, but you must not state it in a self-assured way, because this is a democratic country and others may be of a different opinion. ~ George Mikes

There are two options for any society: total prohibition as in a totalitarian state, or total license. Both avoid the ardours of decision. Both have the attraction of certainty. The difficult option is to decide where the line should be drawn and this, surely, is the responsiblity of any civilized and democratic country. ~ P.D. James

Integrationists are delighted to live in a democratic country where the rule of law prevails, whereas chauvinists wish to import the customs of the Middle East and South Asia. ~ Daniel Pipes

Sweden is an open, liberal, secular and democratic country. We strive towards achieving equality; we are forward-looking and refuse to be pulled back by social constructs such as religion. ~ Bjorn Ulvaeus

If in a democratic country nothing can be permanently achieved save through the masses of the people, it will be impossible to establish a higher political life than the people themselves crave. ~ Jane Addams

Democracies don't go to war against each other, and by and large they don't sponsor terrorism. They're more likely to respect the environment and human rights and social justice. It's no accident that most of the terrorists come from non-democratic countries. ~ William J. Clinton

How do you measure suffering? I mean, the fact that I live in a democratic country doesn't guarantee my life will be problem-free. Far from it. I understand that I am relatively privileged from a socioeconomical viewpoint, but so was Hamlet - so are a lot of miserable people. I bet there are people in Iran who are happier than I am - who wish to keep living there regardless of who is in charge politically, while I'm miserable here in this supposedly free country and just want out of this life at any cost. ~ Matthew Quick

Like most Israelis, I know very little about the Arabs. We just look down on them and see them as a threat. We have absolutely no experience with a democratic country in our vicinity. Is it good or bad for us? I am convinced that democracy isn't just good for the people in those countries, but for Israel as well. ~ Tom Segev

In a democratic country everything is very simple: If you choose a good government, good things will happen; if you choose a bad government, bad things will happen! ~ Mehmet Murat Ildan

No substantial famine has ever occurred in any independent and democratic country with a relatively free press. ~ Amartya Sen

Al Qaeda is using our liberal justice system," he continued. I really don't know what liberal justice system he was talking about: the U.S. broke the world record for the number of people it has in prison. Its prison population is over two million, more than any other country in the world, and its rehabilitation programs are a complete failure. The United States is the "democratic" country with the most draconian punishment system; in fact, it is a good example of how draconian punishments do not help in stopping crimes. Europe is by far more just and humane, and the rehab programs there work, so the crime rate in Europe is decisively lower than the U.S. But the American proverb has it, "When the going gets rough, the rough get going." Violence naturally produces violence; the only loan you can make with a guarantee of payback is violence. It might take some time, but you will always get your loan back. ~ Mohamedou Ould Slahi

At the time, about to graduate from college, I was operating mainly on impulse, like a salmon swimming blindly upstream toward the site of his own conception. In class and seminars I would dress up these impulses in the slogans and theories that I'd discovered in books., thinking - falsely - that the slogans meant something, that they somehow made what I felt more amenable to proof. But at night, lying in bed, I would let the slogans drift away, to be replaced with a series of images, romantic images, of a past I'd never known.
...
Such images became a form of prayer for me, bolstering my spirits, channeling my emotions in a way that words never could. They told me (although even this much understanding may have come later, is also a construct, containing its own falsehoods) that I wasn't alone in my particular struggles, and that communities had never been a given in this country, at least not for blacks. Communities had to be created, fought for, tended like gardens. They expanded or contracted with the dreams of men... Through organising, through shared sacrifice, membership had been earned. And because membership was earned... I believed that it might, over time, admit the uniqueness of my life.
That was my idea of organising. It was a promise of redemption. ~ Barack Obama

I've always wanted to sing country music. ~ Julianne Hough

France is the country where the money falls apart and you can't tear the toilet paper. ~ Billy Wilder

He used to annoy me with sophistry that we all chose our destiny. Then one day I told him that that's great when fate offers you a nice set of destinies to choose from, but when you find yourself choosing between risking being raped, tortured and killed, or moving to another country to live like an alien without tongue, money or understanding, you are buggered either way. And that's not even to mention how easily he could navigate through the mine filed of his mistakes... ~ Dunya Look

Every country my country, and every man my brother. ~ Dan Wheeler

If presidents can't do it to their wives, they do it to their country. ~ Mel Brooks

The countries that have collected the most development aid are also the ones that are in the worst shape. Despite the billions that have poured in to Africa, the continent remains poor. ~ James Shikwati

Poetry is not an esoteric art cultivated by dreamy young men in open collars and with wispy beards. Its finest masters have always been men and women of outstanding energy and great, though by no means common, sense. Poetry is the most economical way of saying certain things that cannot be said in any other way. At its most intense it expresses better than other forms of literature whatever is left of us when we are not involved in instinct-following, surviving, competing, or problem-solving. Its major property is not, as some suppose, beauty. It is power. It is the most powerful form of communication. It does the most work per syllable, operating on a vast field - that of our emotions. It gains its efficiency from the use of certain levers - rhythm, music, rhyme, metaphor, and many more - for which other forms of communication are less well adapted. Some poetry, especially modern poetry, is difficult. But just as our ears have accustomed themselves to difficult music, so our understanding, if we are willing to make an effort, can accustom itself to the most condensed and superficially strange verse. At one time poetry was as democratic an art as the novel is nowadays. It can be so again, if we are willing to make it so. ~ Clifton Fadiman

If it were the Clinton people, they'd be sitting around figuring out how to pull themselves out. Instead the president is continuing to go around the country and peddling Social Security, which the needle is not moving on. ~ Gwen Ifill

I am in favor of increased communication and cooperation between countries, but it is more important that each country becomes responsible for its own actions, its own communities, its own economies, before starting to integrate in large regional or global supranational organizations. ~ David Korten

Even when you cherish democratic ideals, it is never easy to turn them into effective democratic institutions. This process will take decades. ~ Condoleezza Rice

We would not give up our own country - Ireland - if we were to get the whole world as an estate, and the Country of the Young along with it. ~ Lady Gregory

There are a lot of things that are said by people in the military, or civilian life, or in the Congress, or in the Executive Branch, that are their views. And that's the way we live. We're a free people. And that's the wonderful thing about our country. ~ Donald Rumsfeld

She may know what I am, though," Lorena said.
"Yes, she'll know you're a human being. You don't have to duck your head to nobody. Half the women in this country probably started out like you did, workin' in saloons. ~ Larry McMurtry

America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known. ~ Pat Buchanan

Fantastically, Australia is still the lucky country. We have the flawed but necessary gift of democracy. Currently there is a debate about whether there is racism in Australia. There is racism in every country in the world. Relatively speaking, we are tolerant of one another. We have a large and giving land and, if you haven't seen its beauty, you haven't seen a beauty precious to the earth. ~ Martin Flanagan

Go figure a crazy, mixed-up country where ballet outsells boxing. I wouldn't be surprised if their wrestling was on the level. ~ Bob Hope

We have got to make sure that every qualified American in this country who wants to go to college can go to college
regardless of income. ~ Bernie Sanders

It's not just tougher out there. It's become a situation where the contest is how much you can destroy the system, rather than how much you can make it work. It makes no difference if you have a 'D' or an 'R' after your name. There's no sense that this is about democracy, and after the election you have to work together, and knit the country together. The people in the game now just think to the first Tuesday in November, and not a day beyond it. ~ Peter Hart

The real tragedy of England, as I see it, is the tragedy of ugliness. The country is so lovely: the man-made England is so vile. ~ D.H. Lawrence

Television is the first truly democratic culture - the first culture available to everybody and entirely governed by what the people want. The most terrifying thing is what people do want. ~ Clive Barnes

I am truly a "lone traveler" and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friends, or even my immediate family, with my whole heart. ~ Albert Einstein

There was no such person as Mrs. Wayne Wilmot; there was only a shell containing the opinions of her friends, the picture post cards she had seen, the novels of country squires she had read; it was this that he had to address, this immateriality which could not hear him or answer, deaf and impersonal like a wad of cotton. ~ Ayn Rand

It may be argued that the past is a country from which we have all emigrated, that its loss is part of our common humanity. ~ Salman Rushdie

Our public lands - whether a national park or monument, wildlife refuge, forest or prairie - make each one of us land-rich. It is our inheritance as citizens of a country called America. ~ Terry Tempest Williams

On all levels American society is rigged. I am troubled by the cynical immorality of my country. It cannot survive on this basis. ~ John Steinbeck

Furthermore, some of the best people in the country were connected with the Communist movement in some way, heroes and heroines one could admire. There was Paul Robeson, the fabulous singer-actor-athlete whose magnificent voice could fill Madison Square Garden, crying out against racial injustice, against fascism. And literary figures (weren't Theodore Dreiser and W. E. B. DuBois Communists?), ~ Howard Zinn

A traveling epic Hunkey, crossing and recrossing the country every year, south in the winter and north in the summer and only because he has no place he can stay in without getting tired of it and because there was nowhere to go but everywhere, and keep rolling under the stars ~ Jack Kerouac

Universal appreciation of art ... belongs to those countries and those ages which are not, or were not, ruled by materialism. Though travel was never so easy, literature on art never so profuse, and works of art never so widely distributed, a real passion for pictures is encountered but rarely. ~ Walter J. Phillips

America is the only country in the world where you can burn the flag but can't tear the tag off the mattress. ~ Jackie Mason

If you're callin' about my heart, it's still yours. ~ Blake Shelton

Not only our future economic soundness but the very soundness of our democratic institutions depends on the determination of our government to give employment to idle men. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Come all you young rebels and list while I sing
For the love of one's country is a terrible thing
It banishes fear with the speed of a flame
And it makes us all part of their pattriot game. ~ Dominic Behan

I think country needs to have a sporting culture. I think if sports were taken as curriculum in school and are encouraged in right way like government of Maharashtra and Haryana have done given Marks for Sports and encouraging them with good jobs. ~ Gagan Narang

You have heard of the new chemical nomenclature endeavored to be introduced by Lavoisier, Fourcroy, &c. Other chemists of this country, of equal note, reject it, and prove in my opinion that it is premature, insufficient and false. These latter are joined by the British chemists; and upon the whole, I think the new nomenclature will be rejected, after doing more harm than good. There are some good publications in it, which must be translated into the ordinary chemical language before they will be useful. ~ Thomas Jefferson

It is ironic-rouse the limpest adjective-that a government as spontaneously tyrannous and callous as ours should, over the years, have come yo care so much about our health as it endlessly tests and retests commercial drugs available in other lands while arresting those who take "hard" drugs on the potential ground that they are bad for the user's health. One is touched by their concern- touched and dubious. After all, these same compassionate guardians of our well-being have sternly, year in and year out, refused to allow us to have what every other First World country simply takes for granted, a national health service. ~ Gore Vidal

I don't like people telling other people what to do. Sex work for a lot of women is really important, especially in countries where women don't have a lot of power. Here we can have at least some form ... of making money. ~ Margaret Cho

There are a few places around the country, north shore of Oahu would be one that I would point to, where people really look out for each other; it's a real local sort of a place and once you're in that sort of ohana, or that family, everybody kind of looks out for each other. ~ Michael Raymond-James

My hope of the future lies in the youths of character, intelligent,
renouncing all for the service of others, and obedient - good to themselves and the country at large ~ Swami Vivekananda

Horseshoes are lucky. Horses have four bits of lucky nailed to their feet. They should be the luckiest animals in the world. They should rule the country. They should win all their horse races, at least. 'In the fifth race today, every single horse was first equal ... one horse threw a shoe came in third ... the duck was ninth ... and five ran.' ~ Eddie Izzard

Lay down the thorn, boy king. Haven't you earned a bit of rest? Aren't you tired?'

He was. Saints, he was. He thought he had grown used to his scars, but he had never grasped how much of his will it would take to hide them. He had fought and sacrificed and bled. He had gone long days without rest and long nights without comfort. All for Ravka, all for an ideal he would never attain and a country that would never care. ~ Leigh Bardugo

National character is only another name for the particular form which the littleness, perversity and baseness of mankind take in every country. Every nation mocks at other nations, and all are right. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer

The Philippines just need 100 youth to stand up for their country ~ F. Sionil Jose

Class is not a fixed designation in this country. We are an upwardly mobile society with a lot of movement between income groups. ~ Paul Ryan

Great. So basically you're saying your entire family is trained to kick my ass if I step out of line."
Sherry tapped his chest with a smirk she didn't quite feel. "AND don't you forget it."
"Well, except for me," Colby replied. "I leave the fighting to my man. I'd just slip something in your food. ~ Rachel Harris

A country that cannot feed itself cannot have self-pride, and in the mid-'60s 20 percent of all the wheat produced in America came into India. We were agriculturally a basket case. And 15 years later, 20 years later, we have become an agricultural power. This is the famous Green Revolution. ~ Jairam Ramesh