Octavio Paz Quotes

I am going to build the kind of nation that President Roosevelt hoped for, President Truman worked for and President Kennedy died for.

Not less, but more democracy - that is the demand, that is the great goal that we have to prescribe for ourselves, and especially for our youth.

We're not going back anywhere, we're going forward, we're going forward in democracy, we're going forward in participation, we're going forward with ideas.

I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy - but that could change.

But despite this breathtaking pace, I believe in the capacity of our democracy to meet these challenges.

I don't really care how or why Obama got to the right place on gay marriage. I'm just glad he got there.

My goal for the Arab world is to change the status quo, which is horrible politically, religiously, economically, in every way.

The voice of great events is proclaiming to us, Reform, that you may preserve.

My retirement will make no difference in [the newspaper’s] cardinal principles, that it will always fight for progress and reform, never tolerate injustice or corruption, always fight demagogues of all parties, never belong to any party, always oppose privileged classes and public plunderers, never lack sympathy with the poor, always remain devoted to the public welfare, never be satisfied with merely printing news, always be drastically independent, never be afraid to attack wrong, whether by predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty.

Here in America, we have labored long and hard to achieve a social order worthy of our great heritage. In our time, tremendous progress has been made toward a really democratic way of life. Let me assure the forward-looking people of America that there will be no relaxation in our efforts to improve the lot of the common people.

Democracy cannot be static. Whatever is static is dead.

The universe moves in the direction of Liberty.

I didn't come into politics to change the Labour Party. I came into politics to change the country.

If you scratch below the surface and ask what really makes me tick, it's the liberalism of trying to promote freedom and opportunity. Promoting social mobility is one of the keys to that.

When one makes a Revolution, one cannot mark time; one must always go forward - or go back. He who now talks about the 'freedom of the press' goes backward, and halts our headlong course towards Socialism.

As an American people, what is greatest about our history are the many times we have led this world away from hate, towards hope.

I've always believed that if you support reform or you support a particular idea that you ought to fund that idea first and not the system.

Do you know what social justice is? Do you know what social reform is? I didn't either, but reform and social justice are what I intend to do.

The most enduring legacy of President Barack Obama is going to be a new generation of leaders standing up for liberty.

We believe that this is not right for a democracy to make revolutions the beacon of promoting democracy.

There can be no democracy without truth. There can be no truth without controversy, there can be no change without freedom. Without freedom there can be no progress.

An ordinary Turk, an ordinary Arab, an ordinary Tunisian can change history. We believe that democracy is good, and that our people deserve it.

For all my years in public life, I have believed that America must sail toward the shores of liberty and justice for all. There is no end to that journey, only the next great voyage. We know the future will outlast all of us, but I believe that all of us will live on in the future we make.

Red Dust was about the late 1980s; it was a time of burgeoning hopes and opening up and people searching for new ways.

Politics requires the sense of possibility. Dare I say it - the audacity of hope.