Haile Selassie Quotes

Between a balanced republic and a democracy, the difference is like that between order and chaos.

The essence of democracy is not that everyone makes and administers laws but that lawgivers and rulers should be dependent on the people's will in such a way that they may be peaceably changed if conflict occurs.

[O]ur sages in the great [constitutional] convention... intended our government should be a republic which differs more widely from a democracy than a democracy from a despotism. The rigours of a despotism often... oppress only a few, but it is the very essence and nature of a democracy, for a faction claiming to oppress a minority, and that minority the chief owners of the property and truest lovers of their country.

India has remained a full, functioning democracy.

Democracy is the right choice and is the greatest form of government ever created.

For me democracy is the only way of life. The opposite is dictatorship or anarchy.

Democracy is a great institution and, therefore, it is liable to be greatly abused.

Democracy is perhaps the most promiscuous word in the world of public affairs.

Voting is the foundational act that breathes life into the principle of the consent of the governed.

In an autocracy, one person has his way; in an aristocracy a few people have their way; in a democracy no one has his way.

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

The king, in possession of the throne, was the sole representative of sovereignty, the sole representative of power. Not so in a Republic … Here we have no sole representative of power. The ballot box is the instrumentality through which the sovereign power is exercised.

… a permanent Council of the ablest men chosen by the people

A republic—if you can keep it.

If we believe in a democratic system, we have to accept the will of the people.

A republic and a democracy are pretty much identical, pretty much on every level.

The beauty of our democracy is that the final authority is not the president of the United States, but instead the American public through their duly elected representatives in the United States Congress.

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

Democracy is a gleaming Excalibur - let's not use it just to mend the toaster.

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

Democracy is a word all public men use and none understand.

Democracy must be a sound scheme at bottom, else it would not survive such cruel strains.

Democracy means the belief that humanistic culture should prevail.

As freedom is the only safeguard of governments, so are order and moderation generally necessary to preserve freedom.

Democracy, Republic: What do these words signify? What have they changed in the world? Have men become better, more loyal, kinder? Are the people happier? All goes on as before, as always. Illusions, illusions.