Florence King Quotes

Democracy does not require perfect equality, but it does require that citizens share a common life. What matters is that people of different backgrounds and social positions encounter one another, and bump up against one another, in the course of ordinary life.

The government must give men and women without power a real say over what happens to them, and the means of engaging in a participative, invigorated and living democracy.

Among the foremost benefits of free government is that education of the intelligence and of the sentiments which is carried down to the very lowest ranks of the people when they are called to take a part in acts which directly affect the great interests of their country.

We need to restore our democracy to a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

We cannot imagine democracies without a vibrant civil society.

Democracy can be sustained and developed only by people who understand its essence.

No government can be free that does not allow all its citizens to participate in the formation and execution of her laws.

I never miss a vote; I think that's the power of the people. A lot of people fought and died for us to have votes, for women to have votes in particular - your vote is your one weapon.

Elections are an enduring spectacle of free India, and have provided foreign journalists with the opportunity to remind the world that India remains the world's largest democracy.

Democracy is not something that happens, you know, just at election time, and it's not something that happens just with one event. It's an ongoing building process. But it also ought to be a part of our culture, a part of our lives.

On the show, we are not trying to get people to eat their vegetables; we are not trying to get people to become Democrats. We are basically trying to encourage people to get involved with public life so that politics isn't left to the wealthy and privileged.

In the 2004 presidential election, we saw a wonderful example of citizens making contributions. In fact, individual giving to both the Kerry and Bush campaigns was the highest in our nation's history.

Democracy functions best when we have an active citizenry.

Every citizen has to figure out what kind of government he or she wants.

In most places in the country, voting is looked upon as a right and a duty, but in Chicago it's a sport.

These days there are not enough of such intermediary groups, between the state and the individual, with the result that political leaders are often unduly guided by opinion polls.

The most powerful thing we own is our vote.

It's heartbreaking that so many hundreds of millions of people around the world are desperate for the right to vote, but here in America people stay home on election day.

A constitutional democracy is in serious trouble if its citizenry does not have a certain degree of education and civic virtue.

I think if people value democracy, they had damn well better get out and exercise their right to vote while their vote still means something.

Their whole constitution breathes nothing but liberty; and when there is equality of condition, manners and privileges, and a constant familiarity in society, as prevails in every Indian nation, and through all our British colonies, there glows such a cheerfulness and warmth of courage in each of their breasts, as cannot be described

Parks and public space are … important to a democratic society because they are the only places where people meet as equals.

The effective functioning of our constitutional democracy depends upon the participation in public life of a citizenry that is well informed

The people's government has come to be less and less the people's business.

If you don't have a democracy in which most people feel engaged, you don't have a democracy very long.