E. M. Forster Quotes

I'm a patriot, and I think democracy is the best system available. It's very flawed, but it works better than anything else.

India is a democracy; it is in our DNA. As far as the different political parties are concerned, I firmly believe that they have the maturity and wisdom to make decisions that are in the best interests of the nation.

A democratic constitution, not supported by democratic institutions in detail, but confined to the central government, not only is not political freedom, but often creates a spirit precisely the reverse, carrying down to the lowest grade in society the desire and ambition of political domination.

Democracy is a poor system of government at best; the only thing that can honestly be said in its favor is that it is eight times as good as any other method the human race has ever tried.

Sure the people are stupid: the human race is stupid. Sure Congress is an inefficient instrument of government. But the people are not stupid enough to abandon representative government for any other kind, including government by the guy who knows.

Pure representative government is not suitable to our character, customs, and present conditions...So long as our compatriots do not develop the talents and political virtues which distinguish our brothers of the north (The United States) the entire popular system, far from being suitable to our conditions, may, I fear, be our ruin.

But our perfect democracy, which neither needs nor particularly wants voters, is a rarity. It is important to remember there still exist many other forms of government in the world today, and that dozens of foreign governments still long for a democracy such as ours to be imposed on them.

Democracy is an interesting, even laudable, notion and there is no question but that when compared to Communism, which is too dull, or Fascism, which is too exciting, it emerges as the most palatable form of government.

If you give up on democracy, you might as well give up on everything.

We certainly would not want to have the same kind of democracy as they have in Iraq, I can tell you quite honestly.

It is democracy I am really suffering from as much as I am suffering from the opposition.

A republic, by which I mean a government in which the scheme of representation takes place, opens a different prospect and promises the cure for which we are seeking.

Democratical States must always feel before they can see: it is this that makes their Governments slow, but the people will be right at last.

We are fighting to save a great and precious form of government for ourselves and for the world.

A democracy is a compromise by its nature. It's not a dictatorship.

I am a firm believer in the importance of democracy, not only as the ultimate goal, but also as an essential part of the process.

I support our democracy. And sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

Our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here, the people rule.

And in Canada we, you know, it costs us three or $400 million to have an election. You know, it's always been my position that we shouldn't complain about that; that's the price of admission for a living in a great democracy.

Our political institutions work remarkably well. They are designed to clang against each other. The noise is democracy at work.

I'm the one who initiated the democratic process.

The problem is there is no such thing as a viable democracy made up of experts, zealots, politicians and spectators.

The Senate of the United States has been both extravagantly praised and unreasonably disparaged, according to the predisposition and temper of its various critics…. The truth is, in this case as in so many others, something quite commonplace and practical. The Senate is just what the mode of its election and the conditions of public life in this country make it.

The Congress is not a court of law but it is a court of public opinion.

Voting should be the right of the great body of the society…an inconsiderable proportion, or a favored class of it; otherwise a handful of tyrannical nobles, exercising their oppressions by a delegation of their powers, might aspire to the rank of republicans, and claim for their government the honorable title of republic.