Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Quotes

Our democratic institutions are adversarial.

Africa must develop a genuine culture of alternation and opposition, without which democracy in any country, including the West, cannot exist.

It is not healthy to have a country governed by just one political party. There should be other political families taking part in government.

I’m not ready to hand over power to people or groups of people who have no ability to manage a nation.

The function of a newspaper in a democracy is to stand as a sort of chronic opposition to the reigning quacks.

The promise of our country is that the rules are fair.

Our democracy only works when the official opposition does its job of opposing the government of the day and offers a clear alternative vision for our country, including giving a voice to the voiceless.

An opposition that won't oppose paralyses our political and democratic system.

I do think a healthy opposition is very necessary in a democracy.

[T]he main evil of the present democratic institutions of the united states does not raise, as is often asserted in Europe, from their weakness, but from their irresistible strength. I am not so much alarmed at the excessive liberty which reigns in that country as at the inadequate securities which one finds there against tyranny.

South Africa now needs skilled and educated people to say 'How do we manage and develop this democratic country?'

To view the opposition as dangerous is to misunderstand the basic concepts of democracy. To oppress the opposition is to assault the very foundation of democracy.

Where the states are dead set on suppressing political opposition, it's very hard to overcome that.

And the principle which distinguishes democracy from all other forms of government is that in a democracy the opposition not only is tolerated as constitutional but must be maintained because it is in fact indispensable.

All parts of the body which have a function, if used in moderation and exercised in labors in which each is accustomed, become thereby healthy, well developed and age more slowly, but if unused they become liable to disease, defective in growth and age quickly.

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.

What is wrong with strengthening the opposition? You lose nothing, ... But let them abide by the rules.

I don't think that nature envisaged an insurmountable mechanism that would hinder any country from taking the path of democratic development.

But all should know that the people's participation in the elections will take the country forward ... an election full of excitement will be a major blow to the enemy.

A country cannot make progress while leaving half of its population behind.

I want to say that Russia is developing along a democratic path, this is without question so. No one should have any doubts about that. The fact that, amidst political rivalry and some other domestic developments, we see things happen here that are typical of other countries, I do not see anything unusual in it. We have rallies, opposition rallies. And people here have the right to express their point of view. However, if people, while expressing their views, break the current legislation, the effective law in place, then of course, the law enforcement agencies try to restore order.

There are countries in which it would be as absurd to establish popular governments as to abolish all the restraints in a school or to unite all the strait-waistcoats in a madhouse.

The degree of a country's freedom is the degree of its prosperity.

Famines are easy to prevent if there is a serious effort to do so, and a democratic government, facing elections and criticisms from opposition parties and independent newspapers, cannot help but make such an effort. Not surprisingly, while India continued to have famines under British rule right up to independence... they disappeared suddenly with the establishment of a multiparty democracy and... a free press and an active political opposition constitute the best early-warning system a country threaten by famines can have.

One of my beliefs very strongly is that any democracy depends on a free, healthy press.