Bernie Sanders Quotes

The only way change happens is when people become more significantly involved in the political process.

During the 1960s, large groups of people who are normally passive and apathetic began to try to enter the political arena to press their demands.... The naive might call that democracy, but that's because they don't understand. The sophisticated understand that that's the crisis of democracy.

The elections are the greatest symbol of participation and political reform.

But, Jefferson worried that the people - and the argument goes back to Thucydides and Aristotle - are easily misled. He also stressed, passionately and repeatedly, that it was essential for the people to understand the risks and benefits of government, to educate themselves, and to involve themselves in the political process. Without that, he said, the wolves will take over.

It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen; by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the very first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different, that their voice could be that difference.

Trumpeting the importance of voting deludes people into thinking that they have a leash on the government.

I also recognise that the mandate was given by hundreds of thousands of ordinary people joining in the political process.

We're going to fight for every vote in every state. We're going to make a real difference in people's lives.

Democracy is a life, and involves continual struggle.

Civil disobedience is not only the natural right of a people, especially when they have no effective voice in their own Government, but that it is also a substitute for violence or armed rebellion.

You do not keep American democracy in suspense. Because, look, too many people have marched and protested and fought and died for this democracy.

The case to be made is that we have got to get people involved - continue to get people involved in the political process at every level.

If you can't even manage to to force your own presumably democratic governments to allow you to do good things for yourselves, then you probably deserve to become extinct.

It's a long time until the next election, but it starts now. And if you truly want to see things change in the direction that our country is headed, you have to stay involved. You cannot quit now.

What's wrong is that we are not participating to make this the type of government it needs to be.

Whenever anybody gets involved in politics, its always exciting for me because we take for granted our freedoms and our abilities to effect change through political activism.

In a democracy, citizens pass judgment on their government, and if they are kept in the dark about what their government is doing, they cannot be in a position to make well-grounded decisions.

I think you have to ask yourself does voting work on the level that you are trying to effectuate change; that is the conversation you must have.

Politics is not perfect but it's the best available nonviolent means of changing how we live.

The democratic process is only as great as the people who participate in it.

It is not the Government, the members of Parliament to whom the ultimate decision belongs, it is up to you to go forward sure of your sacred right of free opinion, sure of your patriotism.

It is no longer appropriate for me as an American to sit by and expect my government to get it done.

I mean those people who are interested in good government will certainly contribute in order to make certain there's some counter-balance to those whose interests in good government is less.

The great constitutional corrective in the hands of the people against usurpation of power, or corruption by their agents is the right of suffrage; and this when used with calmness and deliberation will prove strong enough.

In a democratic set-up, people who are being governed should also be a part of the governing system. They should be drafted into the governance.