Zbigniew Brzezinski Quotes

Having elected a government, we will be best advised to let it govern and to let it speak for us as it will in the councils of the nations.

The government should not present the anomaly which it now presents—a government the freest, perhaps the most democratic in the world with reference to local and domestic matters in which you rule yourselves as fully as any people in the world, while in your foreign affairs, your relations with other countries, whether peaceful or warlike, commercial, financial, or otherwise, you may have no more voice than the people of Japan.

We have noted that the federal Constitution put the permanent control of the nation's foreign interests in the hands of the President and the Senate, which to some extent frees the Union's general policy from direct and daily popular control. One should not therefore assert without qualification that American democracy controls the state's external affairs..

Everything in our foreign and domestic policy is a question of issue for the American people to vote on.

In a democracy the People are entitled to determine the Ends or general aims of foreign policy.

One of the reasons we don't have a serious foreign policy is that we pay too much attention to public opinion.

I trust the American people. They almost always get it right …

In a democracy, as a matter of course, every effort is made to seize upon and create publick opinion, which is, substantially, securing power.

As the power of the populace increases, the wisdom of its statesmen, who concern themselves with external affairs, decreases proportionately.

When I represented the people of Texas I voted the way they wanted. If I should be president I would represent the people of the United States and my actions would reflect their views.

Every time there's an election, people start to criticize China.

We can't have an intelligent foreign policy unless we have an intelligent public, because we're a democracy.

We have these old fashioned ideas. For instance, here in America, we talk about democracy - but we don't have a democracy. There are elements of a democracy.

Decision making in a democracy depends above all on knowledge and not just the intel available to presidents and policymakers.

All I wanted was for the public to be able to have a say in how they are governed. That is a milestone we left a long time ago.

We should encourage governments to be sustained by citizens' taxes - that is, democracies. Democracies will be enduring allies of America.

I may be wrong in that, but not I think in putting the questions. In our modern democracy the government needs not a unanimous but a general support for war before it orders our forces to fight.

My book is focused on the power of the American state, not least because the government of the United States governs so much that the case could be made that everybody around the world ought to have a vote in determining some of its policies.

Foreign powers do not seem to appreciate the true character of our government.

As long as we're in a democracy, I have to give what I think the majority of people will enjoy.

Bringing democratic control to the conduct of foreign policy requires a struggle merely to force the issue onto the public agenda.

In a democracy, supposedly we hold power by what we do at the ballot box, so therefore the more we know about political power the better our choices should be and the better, in theory, our democracy should be.

I will, based on the existing ROC constitutional system, based on democratic principles, on the basis of the largest public opinion, promote cross-strait policy.

America is too democratic at home to be autocratic abroad …. But the pursuit of power is not a goal that commands popular passion, except in conditions of a sudden threat or challenge to the public's sense of domestic well-being…. Democracy is inimical to imperial mobilization.

It is the healthiest thing in a democracy when the people who are elected exert power.