William O. Douglas Quotes

This is what democracy is all about. People have every right to protest whoever's in the White House, without fear of persecution. If this happened in Iran, people would be shot on the streets. This is the United States of America, and we have a First Amendment that protects this kind of speech.

A government of, by and for the people is obligated to conduct the nation's business in a manner that respects dissent.

This is one of the finest expressions of U. S. democracy at work.

The great postulate of our democracy is confidence in the common sense of the people and in their maturity of judgment, even on great issues—once they know the facts.

Perhaps the most important thing I learned was about democracy, that democracy is not our government, our constitution, our legal structure. Too often they are enemies of democracy.

The virtue of a democratic system with a [constitutionally guaranteed right to free speech] is that it readily enables the people, over time, to be persuaded that what they took for granted is not so, and to change their laws accordingly.

The United States of America stands for: the ability for people to worship freely, the ability for people to vote and to express their opinion freely is something we hold dear.

Our democracy is predicated on the belief that our government should be accessible by the people. We cannot allow ourselves to give in to fear or shy away from interacting with the public.

Even if I were knocked down by one gunshot it wouldn't affect our democracy and I wasn't knocked down and I have great confidence in our democracy and in Taiwan and in the people of Taiwan.

I regard freedom of expression as the primary right without which one can not have a proper functioning democracy.

And a democracy can't exist without free speech and the right to assemble. And that's what Americans tend to forget. And they're born into a culture where they take all of their freedoms for granted.

I have great confidence in the universal value and in basic human rights and I have great confidence that referenda will eventually take root and become part of our daily lives in Taiwan.

In a democracy, dissent is an act of faith.

The vote, cast in a free atmosphere and with all inclinations and parties at present, was after all a vote to the Islamic Republic, to national independence, to the Constitution and to the Islamic causes.

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

Anybody who asks for democracy to be introduced should respect the results of democracy.

And that is my definition of democracy, the right to be in a minority and not be suppressed.

To me, I was right from the beginning, because it's my right as an American to speak up and question our president, have my point of view, have my opinion, question what I want to question, and say what I want to say about our government.

Having principled men and women in office is how you protect yourself from tyranny, and that was something I learned from when I was 2, 3, 5 years old.

Democracy is still upon its trial. The civic genius of our people is its only bulwark.

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

America is essentially and radically a democracy, not in name merely but in deed.

Democracy is not a state in which people act like sheep. Under democracy individual liberty of opinion and action is jealously guarded ...

I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education.

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