William Kirby Quotes

I don't think there's any serious discussion inside the Chinese government about liberalising. I don't think anything's going to change in China until enough Chinese say, 'We're not going to play this game any more.'

Democracy is about opposition.

If we don't get reform in campaign financing, then we can write this country off.

Chinese no longer crave so much for food and accommodation, but they do crave democracy. I stand by that. I don't know which model China will follow.

It is probable that democracy owes more to nonconformity than to any other single movement.

In the past 20 years and more since China embarked on the road of reform and opening up, we have moved steadfastly to promote political restructuring and vigorously build democratic politics under socialism.

I am happy that Poland is returning to the road of pluralism and democracy.

Democracy is the only civilized way to govern a country.

And so I have studied, I have to tell you, revolutions and uprisings for a long time. They are all slightly different, but what they all look for is some kind of a mechanism to go from an authoritarian system to an open, democratic system.

It is easy to fall into the trap of believing that democracy will improve the function of policy.

The view that we hold in Iraq now is this - that democracy is associated with elections. I believe that elections are possible.

China is on a march toward rule of law and democracy.

The people want to go back to the time when democracy was in full bloom.

There is a heated debate in Turkey these days over whether the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is furthering democracy or rolling it back.

It is going to take a long time to switch Egypt into a democracy.

History indicates that indiscriminately copying Western political systems is a blind alley for China.

My goal for the Arab world is to change the status quo, which is horrible politically, religiously, economically, in every way.

[We must] accelerate the reform of our political system, especially the building of a system of socialist democracy based on law …. Democracy is a worldwide trend …. If the Party doesn’t hold up the banner of democracy in our country, someone else will, and we will lose out.

The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy.

A man may be loyal to his government and yet oppose the particular principles and methods of administration.

In a democracy, the opposition is not only tolerated … but must be maintained as indispensable.

Opening China to the world has dramatically affected the movement for democracy. The process of opening up is a process whereby the government loosens its control of the people. On the other hand, simply opening the economy is not enough. Very few people are actually able to enjoy the economic reforms. The privileged classes, or those who have connections with the privileged classes, enjoy more benefits from an open policy.

Words are capable of shaking the entire structure of government

I'm not for seizing power, I'm for justice in the country and for democratic elections.

Every time there's an election, people start to criticize China.