Amartya Sen Quotes

No famine has ever taken place in the history of the world in a functioning democracy.

Famines are easy to prevent if there is a serious effort to do so, and a democratic government, facing elections and criticisms from opposition parties and independent newspapers, cannot help but make such an effort. Not surprisingly, while India continued to have famines under British rule right up to independence... they disappeared suddenly with the establishment of a multiparty democracy and... a free press and an active political opposition constitute the best early-warning system a country threaten by famines can have.

[N]o democracy with a free press has ever experienced a major famine.

You cannot preach self-government and liberty to people in a starving land.

It has been well said that a hungry man is more interested in four sandwiches than four freedoms.

No country is free unless it is democratic.

A hungry man is not a free man.

I have said democracy and freedom do not work too well if you are hungry, if you are starving.

Democracy cannot flourish in economic ruin.

Of what use is political liberty to those who have no bread? It is of value only to ambitious theorists and politicians.

The war against hunger is truly mankind's war of liberation.

You cannot in practice have a federal guarantee that people won't starve.

While no famine has ever taken place in a democracy, they're the rule rather than the exception in socialist countries.

There should be no political prisoners in a democratic country.

There will never cease to be ferment in the world unless people are sure of their food.

The importance of elections, transparency, legal procedures, an independent army, and the judicial system is not regarded as highly in China. These core values are the most important evidence of the health of a society, quality of life, and security. A clear understanding of such differences will help the rest of the world understand China and all that is happening to the nation.

The spread of democracy, the new foundation of the rule of law, and the creation of fledgling representative governments that honor and respect human rights-together these actions spell out the increasing marginalization of the terrorists, as they have fewer and fewer places to run and hide.

What citizens of a free country would listen to any offers of good and skillful administration in return for the abdication of freedom?

Because we don't have a Fairness Doctrine, and because we have further media consolidation, and because we have a craptastic corporate media, WE DON'T HAVE NEWS! We don't have an informed populous and we don't have a democracy... Everyone in the world knows that America, (in its current state, because of right-wingers) that the right wing arm of this country (that speaks for this country unfortunately) has no credibility when it comes to human rights or independent media.

This must be a world of democracy and respect for human rights, a world freed from the horrors of poverty, hunger, deprivation and ignorance, relieved of the threat and the scourge of civil wars and external aggression and unburdened of the great tragedy of millions forced to become refugees.

In any democratic country you have more than one view.

The victory of democracy in South Africa is the common achievement of all humanity.

Democracy is based on the majority principle. This is especially true in a country such as ours where the vast majority have been systematically denied their rights. At the same time, democracy also requires that the rights of political and other minorities be safeguarded.

For countries to succeed, for democracies to succeed, the women and men in those countries need to be free. Women and men need to know their rights.

What we want to see is the development of human rights and greater democracy, not just because it is our system but because we think that's the best way that economic and political development go hand in hand.