Michael Moore Quotes

Democracies are indeed slow to make war, but once embarked upon a martial venture are equally slow to make peace and reluctant to make a tolerable, rather than a vindictive, peace.

A genuinely democratic Iraq might well act as a fresh spur.

What's the point of elections if everything is already decided?

In survey after survey, the Iraqi people say, 'We want to choose our leaders.'

Support for peaceful reform by the people themselves is the right way to promote democracy, not the use of force.

Elections alone will never be enough to ensure good governance.

We can not have free government without elections. And if the rebellion could force us to forgo, or postpone a national election, it might fairly claim to have conquered or ruined us.

If my goal were to spread democracy, Iraq would be the last country that I would use as a demonstration.

I can't see democracy occurring by force - after an Iraqi war, because of the fallout from that.

Political preemption in the form of democracy promotion will be as important as the capacity for military preemption.

The freedom to persuade and suggest is the essence of the democratic process.

Dialoging is the first principle of good government.

In a new democracy, the most important election is the second election.

The peaceful path out of totalitarianism has never been tested.

The method of democracy is to bring ... conflicts out into the open where their special claims can be seen and appraised, where they can be discussed and judged.

Democracy is more than just having free elections. It's having political structures.

No American witnessing the way that President George W. Bush and his generals have bungled the Iraq war can deny that our leaders, civilian and military alike, will have to get a lot smarter if the U.S. armed services are to persuade the Islamic world to embrace the blessings of democracy.

Democracy needs leaders, not masters.

We cannot impose democracy where it has no constituency.

Free elections are only one part of democracy. Constraint on the power of government and the rule of law and the institutions of democracy are just as important.

In Russia we are not fighting to win elections. We are fighting to have elections.

Most men, being the ruled, not the rulers, want good government. If, without constraint, they choose bad government, it is by mistake

The Muslim world needs democracy. It wants democracy. But it should be real democracy and not just democracy by name only... Democracy has done some good things. It has saved humanity from despots and dictators who act like gods. The details should be left to the people. Let them decide for themselves

Citizens everywhere should be able to choose their leaders in climates free of fear.

Self government cannot work if the people do not know what their rulers are doing and why.