Eleanor Roosevelt Quotes

I hold to be of itself a lesson for all those who love liberty, and who would extend its blessings to their country. Men are not to be pedants in liberty, any more than in virtue. Though they are not to be oppressed by tyrants, they must at least be governed by their fellow-men. The great principles of independence in the heart of man are to be cherished and upheld; but order, prosperity, the purposes of society, must be accomplished. The many must delegate the government of themselves to the few. Control, executive power, must be lodged somewhere …

We always hear about the rights of democracy, but the major responsibility of it is participation.

I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.

Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.

This Bible is for the government of the people, by the people and for the people.

Self government is the hardest thing that people can do other than fighting a civil war.

Democracy substitutes self-restraint for external restraint. It is more difficult to maintain than to achieve.

The people of [a] country [who have] never been in the habit of self-government [will] not [be] in the habit of acknowledging that fundamental law of nature by which alone self-government can be exercised by a society, I mean the lex majoris partis. Of the sacredness of this law, our countrymen are impressed from their cradle so that with them it is almost innate. This single circumstance may possibly decide the fate of [a country.]

Somehow we must be able to show people that democracy is not about words, but action.

Democracy can be noisy and messy. But it works.

In Spain, we should have enough intelligence, enough sense of individual and collective responsibility to do for ourselves that which would be imposed upon us by a dictatorship.

People say, 'If you don't vote, then you don't have a right to say anything. But nine times outta 10, I pay more taxes than they do - so even if I don't vote, I still have the right to speak out.

Anglo-Saxon civilization has taught the individual to protect his own rights; American civilization will teach him to respect the rights of others.

Democracy is a device that insures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.

As citizens of this democracy, you are the rulers and the ruled, the law-givers and the law-abiding, the beginning and the end.

America's greatness has been the greatness of a free people who shared certain moral commitments. Freedom without moral commitment is aimless and promptly self-destructive.

Remember one thing about democracy. We can have anything we want and at the same time, we always end up with exactly what we deserve.

I'm honored to serve as mayor of my hometown where our founders started America with three simple words: 'We, the people.' And when they said 'people' they didn't mean 'corporations.'

Democracy - or any improvement on it - will rest on the layman's right to criticize. His criticism will be often - very often - damn silly, but if, like Plato and the Fascists, we take away his right to criticize, we take away his right to appreciate.

In democracy everyone has the right to be represented, even the jerks.

The modern state no longer has anything but rights; it does not recognize duties any more.

Voting is the expression of our commitment to ourselves, one another, this country and this world.

To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.

Here's to democracy. May we get the government we deserve.

Democracy is more than a ballot box.