Charles C. Haynes Quotes

Schools cannot teach all minority viewpoints even if they are passionately held.

In a pluralistic society, public schools are places for persons of all faiths and none. Schools may neither promote nor denigrate any religion.

Our forefathers realized the importance of education to a nation, and particularly the importance of an educated people in a democracy, but we seem to have forgotten what sacrifices they made to start a public school system in this country.

Democracy is finding proximate solutions to insoluble problems.

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

I think more so than the Republican Party, we reflect America on the Democratic side of the aisle, and that's a healthy thing. I mean, that's what democracy is all about.

Bring it on. Dissent is central to any democracy.

Journalism still, in a democracy, is the essential force to get the public educated and mobilized to take action on behalf of our ancient ideals.

We respect opposition to any position or policy. But we believe that the opinion that should prevail and be respected is that of the majority.

The capacity to combine commitment with skepticism is essential to democracy.

We live in a democracy. We have this extraordinary opportunity to use our mind and say what we think, speak as we think. Sometimes what we say is objectionable to other people. But that is part of a free society.

The right of a minority is so important in a democracy.

Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.

Democracy involves that old-fashioned thing called working it out.

And that is my definition of democracy, the right to be in a minority and not be suppressed.

I'm an extreme libertarian, but I realize we're in a democracy, and in a democracy, people can have views of all stripes, and there's no reason to argue about it.

My message is that Democracy is not an alien invention. It is a way of solving problems in our society.

A democratic form of government, a democratic way of life, presupposes free public education over a long period; it presupposes also an education for personal responsibility that too often is neglected.

Nowhere is it more important — or more difficult — to address our growing ideological and religious diversity than in the public schools. Not only are our schools a key battleground in the culture wars, they are the principal institution charged with enabling Americans to live with our deepest differences. If we fail in our schools to teach and model the rights and responsibilities that flow from the 1st Amendment, then surely we endanger the future of our daring experiment in religious liberty.

True Americanism is opposed utterly to any political divisions resting on race and religion. To the race or to the sect, which as such attempts to take possession of the politics or the public education of the country, true Americanism says, Hands off!

A democracy ... requires groups that assert all of society's interests, not just those of a small group.

Democracy is much too important to be left to public opinion.

Democracy is about opposition.

[Sometimes] the minorities are too respectable, not to be entitled to some sacrifice of opinion, in the majority.

Democracy demands the generation of conflict for the manifestation of different expectations and aspirations of people and at the same time its resolution through peaceful means