H. L. Mencken Quotes

Democracy is now going forth on a crusade against imperialism.

A genuinely democratic Iraq might well act as a fresh spur.

The English think they are free. They are free only during the election of members of parliament.

Last month, the Iraqi people went to the polls, voting in their first free election in more than 50 years.

While democracy must have its organization and controls, its vital breath is individual liberty.

For us democracy is a question of human dignity. And human dignity is political freedom.

Democracy matters because it reflects an idea of equality and an idea of liberty. It reflects an idea of dignity, the dignity of the individual, the idea that each individual should have an equal vote, an equal say, in the formation of their government.

America's greatest contribution to the world is its concept of democracy, its concept of freedom, freedom of action, freedom of speech, and freedom of thought.

The dream of democracy has long been enshrined in the hearts of the Egyptian people. It only needed awakening.

Democracy will not come Today, this year Nor ever Through compromise and fear.

Freedom is when the people can speak, democracy is when the government listens.

In democracies the people seem to act as they please.

Democracy is the best revenge.

The present generation has the same right of self-government which the past one has exercised for itself.

America's objective today should be to try to make herself the best possible mirror of democracy that she can. The people of the world can see what happens here. They watch us to see what we are going to do and how well we can do it. We are giving them the only possible picture of democracy that we can: the picture as it works in actual practice. This is the only way other peoples can see for themselves how it works; and can determine for themselves whether this thing is good in itself, whether it is better than they have, better than what other political and economic systems offer them.

The real strength of the democratic theory in opposition to the fascist or communist is that the fascist frankly states that certain people will tell other people what they shall do to be happy, and those other people have little or nothing to say about it. In theory the communists were to do everything in common, in practice a small group there also tells other people what they shall do to achieve their objectives. So far more nearly than any other form of government, the democratic form has allowed people to shape their own government

There are a couple of ways to use the word democracy, and the way that I think is productive is to think about democracy as not a state that can actually be achieved, but as an ideal.

Without democracy, we are voiceless subjects. But with it, we are citizens armed with the power to change our destinies.

I am confident that you brothers in parliament will champion the will of the people over that of the occupier.

The primal principle of democracy is the worth and dignity of the individual.

Democracy is timelessly human, and timelessness always implies a certain amount of potential youthfulness.

We should never take democracy for granted. Democracy can emerge and develop, but it can also decay.

It is the right of a democratically elected parliament to act in defence of our traditional liberties, and everything should be done to keep it that way.

There is a danger in democracy itself.

Democracy may have arisen in the West as the way of striving for the universal aspiration to dignity and freedom, but it isn't alien to the underlying concepts that infuse religion and moral philosophy everywhere.