Omar Bongo Quotes

There is a heated debate in Turkey these days over whether the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is furthering democracy or rolling it back.

People who live in the post-totalitarian system know only too well that the question of whether one or several political parties are in power, and how these parties define and label themselves, is of far less importance than the question of whether or not it is possible to live like a human being.

If democracy is finished, all is lost.

We will continue civil disobedience to fight for democracy and for human rights in Hong Kong.

Maintain democracy or go to dictatorship: that is what is at stake in these elections.

We're quite lucky that we've got political freedoms. We should be using them.

If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal.

No country is free unless it is democratic.

The democratic state can sometimes abuse its power as much as those who seek to destroy it abuse fundamental rights and democratic practices.

We believe that this is not right for a democracy to make revolutions the beacon of promoting democracy.

So long as we have enough people in this country willing to fight for their rights, we'll be called a democracy.

There was never in my mind a desire to give in on the subject of freeing the political prisoners.

Pakistan is a democracy. We cannot do anything against human rights.

This country has been without stern, sails and wind, and it needs someone at the helm. We are doomed to live in an authoritarian state until genuine democracy, which should not be confused with anarchy, can be set up.

We’re here to preserve democracy, not to practice it.

Most people in Iraq talk of democracy and don’t know what it is … Most do not know what Human Rights is. We need a lot of training… Time is critical.

Independently of its misdeeds, the mere power, — the bare existence of such a power, — is a thing irreconcilable with the nature and spirit of our institutions

Words are capable of shaking the entire structure of government

Within the United States, we have put great emphasis upon political freedoms. Because it has been our experience that these freedoms can lead to others.

The right to free speech is critical to our democracy.

I have the deepest, deepest respect for these guys who are actually fighting for democracy in countries far away.

The only situation that I can't be in favour of is the lack of respect to human rights in Venezuela.

What I find very painful are all these charges that democracy is really shaken in Poland, that we have been switching into some authoritarian regime.

Taiwan is a budding democracy, and the people have participated in multi-party democratic elections since 1996.

During most of the Bush administration, human rights and democracy in Egypt were on the front burner.