Bill Bradley Quotes

In democracies the people seem to act as they please.

Democracy takes time. Dictatorship is quicker, but too many people get shot.

It seems advisable, that we should no longer have a single man to rule over us—the rule of one is neither good nor pleasant …. I vote, therefore, that we do away with monarchy, and raise the people to power. For the people are all in all.

The real strength of the democratic theory in opposition to the fascist or communist is that the fascist frankly states that certain people will tell other people what they shall do to be happy, and those other people have little or nothing to say about it. In theory the communists were to do everything in common, in practice a small group there also tells other people what they shall do to achieve their objectives. So far more nearly than any other form of government, the democratic form has allowed people to shape their own government

There aren't traditions of freedom in a place like Iraq. They're going to have to come to grips with a concept that they hadn't been allowed to conceive before.

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

Democracy will not come Today, this year Nor ever Through compromise and fear.

The people are the masters.

Let The People Rule

I think democracy is a universal idea and I think letting people rule themselves happens to be something that serves America and America’s interests.

A democratic government must always be left free to be operated upon by the will of the majority of the time being. All that the government of the day can do is to ascertain what now appears to be the best principle.

The most profound argument for democracy is its faith in man.

A democratic society cannot tolerate mob rule.

The colonists were struggling not only against the armies of a great nation, but against the settled opinions of mankind; for the world did not then believe that the supreme authority of government could be safely entrusted to the guardianship of the people themselves.

We are at a point where democracy—the idea and practice of people controlling their lives—is a revolutionary issue in the United States.

The people made this government, and not the government the people. Destroy the intelligence of the people, and the government could not exist for a day; — destroy this government, and the people would create another, and yet another, of no less perfect symmetry.

Democracy can be noisy and messy. But it works.

Democracy is like a street car. You get off when you reach your destination.

In a democracy, people are supreme.

In the long and dogged crusade that the human race has fought in favor of democracy, the ideal of liberty, of freedom, has always been the goal.

In this era of the global village, the tide of democracy is running. And it will not cease, not in China, not in South Africa, not in any corner of this earth, where the simple idea of democracy and freedom has taken root.

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

In a democracy, dissent is an act of faith.

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

As I understand the American Founders, the most brilliant and daring idea they had was that it's possible to create a free society that could stay free forever.