#Democracy

"It’s not unpatriotic to denounce an injustice committed on our behalf, perhaps it’s the most patriotic thing we can do."

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have researched the records for years, and employed agents to help me—has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby."

"Democracy! Bah! When I hear that I reach for my feather boa!"

"Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred."

"The lesson we are indebted to Egypt for, our future generations learned that in the face of oppression silence is never golden."

"A child who does not think about what happens around him and is content with living without wondering whether he lives honestly is like a man who lives from a scoundrel's work and is on the road to being a scoundrel."

"I knew I was alone in a way that no earthling has ever been before."

"Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in ancient Greek republics: Freedom for slave owners."

"You have to remember one thing about the will of the people: it wasn't that long ago that we were swept away by the Macarena."

"Democracy should always be viewed with a philosophical perspective rather than a political one, because after all democracy was born to a philosopher and murdered by a politician."

"The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.--as quoted in THE RIVER OF WINGED DREAMS"

"It's true that General Musharraf opposes my return, seeing me as a symbol of democracy in the country. He is comfortable with dictatorship. I hope better sense prevails."

"The worst thing that can happen in a democracy - as well as in an individual's life - is to become cynical about the future and lose hope."

"I'm an American. We've translated democracy and brotherhood and equality into enterprise and opportunity and success - and that's getting Americanised."

"People shouldn't be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people."

"We live in a system that espouses merit, equality, and a level playing field, but exalts those with wealth, power, and celebrity, however gained."

"My people are going to learn the principles of democracy the dictates of truth and the teachings of science. Superstition must go. Let them worship as they will, every man can follow his own conscience provided it does not interfere with sane reason or bid him act against the liberty of his fellow men."

"Democracy still has a real hope and chance in Iraq, and true freedom in this country would be the greatest testament to those who gave their lives for it."

"You show me a capitalist, and I'll show you a bloodsucker"

"The only way we'll get freedom for ourselves is to identify ourselves with every oppressed people in the world. We are blood brothers to the people of Brazil, Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba -- yes Cuba too."