Russell Shorto Quotes

You've got the whole stuff with transgender toilets and stuff like that - that's no way for a government to behave. We're supposed to be against ISIS, so why are we trying to slowly introduce a country-club version of Sharia law in America, you know? It doesn't make any real sense at all. I think there's going to be a lot of energy, there is already a lot of reaction against that - people are prepared to really stand up and be counted for democracy, and in the process to find out what is and what isn't.

I think democracy is the most revolutionary thing in the world, because if you have power you use it to meet the needs of you and your community.

Anti-democracy...is a virus that exists, and pro-democracy is the antibody to that virus, and I think we have to become vigilant, and we have to stay on top of the issues of democracy and freedom.

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

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy

In countries where democracy is either non-existent or in development, on the other hand, citizens crave those freedoms. Maybe that is one lesson Western citizens can learn from those countries: treasure what you have. Use your rights and freedoms to effect the change you want.

Democracy is a life, and involves continual struggle.

As the acceptance of democracy brings a certain life-giving power, so it has its own sanctions and comforts. Perhaps the most obvious one is the curious sense which comes to us from time to time, that we belong to the whole, that a certain basic well being can never be taken away from us whatever the turn of fortune.

Democracy is an insecure landscape.

We need now to build a culture of genuine nonviolence and real democracy.

All over this world people are standing up for freedom.

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

I'm intensely anxious to preserve the freedom that gives you the right to think and to act and to talk as you please. That I think is essential to happiness and the life of the people.

We're seeing the sort of liberal phenomenon of activists that are speaking out. And they have every right to do so. I think we need to respect that in this country. It's just part of the democratic process.

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

I like to think I have the guts to stand up anonymously in a western democracy and call for things no-one else believes in - like peace and justice and freedom.

We are fighting to save a great and precious form of government for ourselves and for the world.

Very few people really care about freedom, about liberty, about the truth, very few. Very few people have guts, the kind of guts on which a real democracy has to depend. Without people with that sort of guts a free society dies or cannot be born.

Liberty built civilization. It can rebuild civilization.

A democracy is a compromise by its nature. It's not a dictatorship.

What Tunisia urgently needs, is freedom and the building of a real democracy.

We still have a lot of work to do to protect our own democracy.

I am a firm believer in the importance of democracy, not only as the ultimate goal, but also as an essential part of the process.

This country to-day [is] the last stronghold of freedom, standing like a rock in a tide that is threatened to submerge the world.

The worst way to defend our freedom is to let our leaders start taking away our freedoms! It is exactly during times like these [a national crisis] that we need more freedom of speech, a strong and critical press, and a citizenry that is not afraid to stand up and say that the emperor has no clothes.