William Greider Quotes

Dishonesty in government is the business of every citizen. It is not enough to do your own job. There's no particular virtue in that. Democracy isn't a gift. It's a responsibility.

Once you don't vote your ideals... that has serious undermining affects. It erodes the moral basis of our democracy.

Laws are important precisely because in a democracy they reflect the attitudes and aspirations of those they govern.

My dream of politics all my life has been that it is the common business, that it is something we owe to each other to understand and discuss with absolute frankness.

Especially among journalists, politics is not a pursuit that's held in high esteem. We tend to be cynical about it - but I actually believe in democracy.

If you believe in democracy, than you can't trash it by being cynical about the people who do democracy: the politicians.

We should all be able to have faith that our governments are working in our best interests - and if they aren't, then they should be challenged and held to account.

The government and politicians should listen to the people instead of preaching from their secular pulpits on how the rest of us should live our lives.

I'll listen to the people. I will not put my party ahead of what the people want.

The commands of democracy are as imperative as its privileges and opportunities are wide and generous. Its compulsion is upon us.

The fact that we've been a great democracy doesn't mean we will automatically keep being one if we keep waving the flag.

Democracy is the most demanding of all forms of government in terms of the energy, imagination, and public spirit required of the individual.

I would say democracy once meant an organizational society and a state, in which the individual citizen is - feels - responsible, and acts responsibly, and participates in decision-making.

Our culture is at a critical cusp - a time that requires that we define what it means to be a citizen in a democracy. Within our nation we need to foster a greater sense of collective responsibility.

Democracy isn't a gift. It's a responsibility.

In the days of democracy there is no such thing as active loyalty to a person. You are, therefore, loyal or disloyal to institutions.

If democracy is to be rebuilt … it is necessary not just for the public to learn to trust their politicians, but for the politicians to learn to trust the public.

Anything that keeps a politician humble is healthy for democracy.

Democracy, disciplined and enlightened, is the finest thing in the world.

Bernard Shaw remains the only model we have of what the citizen of a democracy should be: an informed participant in all things we deem important to the society and the individual.

We've seen a lot of dirty politics in Ireland. We know from the French, their wonderfully neurotic presidents, that our hands are sort of tied. The Italians - I don't know where it stops. No nation can claim "We are an uncorrupt nation, therefore we will tell you what the morals of democracy are." Because it's going on everywhere.

Democracy is necessitated by the fact that all men are sinners; it is made possible by the fact that we know it.

Vote for the candidate you believe would be the best candidate. That's the way it should work.

The only distinction that democracies reward is a high degree of conformity.

We're not going to fix government until we fix citizenship.