Walt Whitman Quotes

The genius of democracies is seen not only in the great number of new words introduced but even more in the new ideas they express.

My message is that Democracy is not an alien invention. It is a way of solving problems in our society.

We have achieved political democracy. Now we must make certain it reaches the minds and souls of our people.

We can't wait until elections to fight for what we care about. We can't hope for a benevolent leader who may choose to listen to us. We need a network that lets the best ideas and leaders rise to the top through an open, inclusive democratic process.

Democracy is not simply a political system; it is a moral movement and it springs from adventurous faith in human possibilities.

The spirit of democracy is not a mechanical thing to be adjusted by abolition of forms. It requires change of heart.

Democracy is not just constitutional and legislative rules; it is a culture and practice and adhering by the law and respecting international human rights principles.

Democracy must learn to defend itself.

We should never take democracy for granted. Democracy can emerge and develop, but it can also decay.

Democracy is not something you put away for ten years, and then in the 11th year you wake up and start practicing again. We have to begin to learn to rule ourselves again.

I wanted to modernize music, but more than that, to completely modernize people's attitudes towards life in general.

I have made a film about jazz that tries to look through jazz to see what it tells us about who we are as a people. I think that jazz is a spectacularly accurate model of democracy and a kind of look into our redemptive future possibilities.

As a writer, you have to first of all write what you want to. Listen to advice, by all means, but don't get bogged down in it.

Everybody now seems to be talking about democracy. I don't understand this. As I think of it, democracy isn't like a Sunday suit to be brought out and worn only for parades. It's the kind of a life a decent man leads, it's something to live for and to die for.

In other words, the bar should be maintained at the level of a pluralistic and participatory democracy.

I think more so than the Republican Party, we reflect America on the Democratic side of the aisle, and that's a healthy thing. I mean, that's what democracy is all about.

The people will save their government, if the government itself will allow them.

We believe democracy cannot be imposed from outside in any society. Democracy is the expression of a sovereign people.

Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.

Democracy can only spring from practising it early, and democratic action was not to expected from young people brought up under a close authoritarian system.

Democracy's a very fragile thing. You have to take care of democracy. As soon as you stop being responsible to it and allow it to turn into scare tactics, it's no longer democracy, is it? It's something else. It may be an inch away from totalitarianism.

The whole idea of a democracy is that we ourselves, the people, are supposed to make a path of our politics, and it is we who with our feet and our vote and our labors and our vigilance are supposed to shape our country.

And that is my definition of democracy, the right to be in a minority and not be suppressed.

Democracy should be home grown.

Democratic reform, depends less on legislative amendments than on creating a climate of democracy.