Michael J. Knowles Quotes

Everybody has their manifesto; let them talk their language, come to the people, and the people will decide. In a democracy, no party or candidate wins or loses. If you, the people, chose a wrong man, you lose; if you chose the right one, you win.

Democracy makes us articulate our views, defend them, and refine them.

I do not want the voice of the people shut out.

Democracy consists of choosing your dictators, after they've told you what you think it is you want to hear.

Although elections are not perfect tools for democracy, they reinforce the relationship between the people and their leaders, empowering citizens to remove and replace their governments in a peaceful and orderly manner. The only basis for a peaceful society is providing people with the opportunity to express their opinions and their will, and elections are instrumental in doing so.

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

Democracy is about aggregating the collective power of citizens to speak in their behalf.

Democratic government consists of listening, deciding, persuading.

Opinion and protest are the life breath of democracy—even when it blows heavy.

Roosevelt understood that democracy requires persuasion and consent

In a democracy, a man who does not listen cannot lead.

In democracy dissent is an act of faith. Like medicine, the test of its value is not its taste, but its effect,...

Public opinion must be heard.

Every voter has a right to criticise a government and comment on its functioning.

Only votes talk, everything else walks.

Let the people decide whom to vote for, who has more authority. And only people, only our citizens, are able to place the final emphasis, voting for this or that person or political force, or rejecting it. That's democracy.

Democracy is a daring concept - a hope that we'll be best governed if all of us participate in the act of government. It is meant to be a conversation, a place where the intelligence and local knowledge of the electorate sums together to arrive at actions that reflect the participation of the largest possible number of people.

Our history is that we can very aggressively, if necessary, and openly and democratically discuss our differences. We have a democratic history in which we come together and vote on these things.

It's not the voting that's democracy; it's the counting.

I think the American people should express their preferences, and we'll accept their choice.

Deliberation and debate is the way you stir the soul of our democracy.

I raise this objection to debate the process, and protect the integrity of the true will of the people.

Democracy is about voting and it's about a majority vote. And it's time that we started exercising the Democratic process.

A mature society understands that at the heart of democracy is argument.

I'm the one who initiated the democratic process.