Tony Benn Quotes

I actually do not think that's how what's happening to our government is going to be stopped. I think people who are willing to be civically engaged and believe in the promises and the progress of the last fifty years that will save this country.

Democracy demands that little men should not take big ones too seriously; it dies when it is full of little men who think they are big themselves.

Politics is how you think about life itself.

If Communism was liberalism in a hurry, liberalism is Communism in slow motion.

There are two opposite reasons for being a democrat. You may think all men so good that they deserve a share in the government of the commonwealth, and so wise that the commonwealth needs their advice. That is, in my opinion, the false, romantic doctrine of democracy. On the other hand, you may believe fallen men to be so wicked that not one of them can be trusted with any irresponsible power over his fellows.

To me, technology was a means to an end to achieve the social justice goals, stronger democracy and more effective government that is the aim of what I do.

Democracy and socialism are means to an end, not the end itself.

I consider anybody a twerp who hasn't read 'Democracy in America' by Alexis de Tocqueville. There can never be a better book than that one on the strengths and vulnerabilities inherent in our form of government.

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

Socialism and communism are now so near each other that there is hardly any difference between them. In the past they differed from each other as does liberalism from democracy

I read Mitch Daniels's book, 'Keeping the Republic,' several times.

The case for democracy is not esthetic.

I would like to have insights into things like government, all those big ideas that you brought up that I simply don't have ideas about. I would like to be able to since so many people discuss them, but I don't want to work at them. I don't think my ambition is that strong in that direction.

How could you say the best form of government is a republic if you think the universe is a monarchy?

The human heart is the first home of democracy.

There are two theories. There's one theory that Barack Obama wants to destroy the country and create a socialistic country. There is that theory, and I've read a lot. This isn't necessarily my theory. I personally think they're incompetent.

I'm a patriot, and I think democracy is the best system available. It's very flawed, but it works better than anything else.

Democracy has nothing to do with freedom. Democracy is a soft variant of communism, and rarely in the history of ideas has it been taken for anything else.

Democracy, in its best state, is but the politics of Bedlam; while kept chained, its thoughts are frantic, but when it breaks loose, it kills the keeper, fires the building, and perishes.

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.

As an American I am of course fundamentally opposed to democracy and to anyone advocating or defending democracy, which in theory and practice is the basis of socialism.

In the last few years we have learned to distinguish the means of Socialism from the ends.

Obviously I think politics is interesting and important and educational.

The practice of our democracy depends on a sense of, and knowledge of, history in the same way that playing in the World Series requires a bat and a ball.

I think I will still feel that same appreciation for what [Winston] Churchill and others have said is the worst form of government except all the alternatives.