Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes

You can't afford to hate politics. The politics of this country is democracy. Democracy is by the people, of the people and for the people. The day people stop taking active part in the politics of this country, democracy will not survive.

If in a democratic country nothing can be permanently achieved save through the masses of the people, it will be impossible to establish a higher political life than the people themselves crave.

Government is not infallible. Government is only an executive control, a centralized authority for the purpose of expressing the will of the people; before you have a government you must have the people. Without the people there can be no government. The government must be, therefore, an expression of the will of the people.

I believe now, as I alway have, that America's strength is in 'We the People.'

The only force at the disposal of democracy is that of public opinion.

Democracy means far more than the right to vote every five years. It means the right to participate in every aspect of national and community life. The people must believe that they can take part.

The good news is dollars don't vote, people do.

Power in politics, sovereignty in America is with we the people, and that is the path to turning this country around: empowering the people.

Pakistan's future viability, stability and security lie in empowering its people and building political institutions. My goal is to prove that the fundamental battle for the hearts and minds of a generation can be accomplished only under democracy.

I take the debate on the method of promoting democracy seriously.

Voters do not decide issues. They decide who will decide issues.

Roosevelt understood that democracy requires persuasion and consent

Democracy comes alive not when government does anything, because government cannot be depended on to rectify serious injustices. It comes alive when people organize and do something about it.

Pure representative government is not suitable to our character, customs, and present conditions...So long as our compatriots do not develop the talents and political virtues which distinguish our brothers of the north (The United States) the entire popular system, far from being suitable to our conditions, may, I fear, be our ruin.

Freedom of economic determination is inseparably linked up with civic rights and with the possibility of influencing and determining the social and political life of the commonwealth.

I would say that every political party must remain in some form in a state or the Centre for the sake of democracy.

We the people tell the government what to do, it doesn't tell us.

Politics is not just about voting one day every four years. Politics is the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the road we walk on.

If you want democracy, you have got to be prepared to accept the responsibilities of democracy. The people have to take part. They have to understand that they have the power to move things, and they must really commit themselves to change if they want it.

Our democracy flourishes when people stand up for themselves and engage in the political process.

Get involved in an issue that you're passionate about. It almost doesn't matter what it is ... We give too much of our power away, to the professional politicians, to the lobbyists, to cynicism. And our democracy suffers as a result.

There is always the risk in advocating for democracy that the first people to wake up might not be your team, but that is a risk worth taking. I would rather have citizens I don't agree with organized and active than an oligarchy of people that I agree with.

Democracy only works, as President [Barack] Obama spoke of in his farewell message, if it's driven by the people and the people stay active and vigilant and speak out and let their concerns be known.

But are we even capable of maintaining a Republic anymore? Are there enough citizens willing to do the hard work that self-rule requires, or have we become a people who would rather be cared for, fed, clothed, housed, and told what's best for us by a parentlike state? Unfortunately, the evidence suggests the latter.

The people have to have the power: it belongs to the people.