Paul Wolfowitz Quotes

Democracy is about aggregating the collective power of citizens to speak in their behalf.

My big idea is that democracy can only work properly if you have truly representative people at the table.

When push comes to shove, people vote alone.

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

Although elections are not perfect tools for democracy, they reinforce the relationship between the people and their leaders, empowering citizens to remove and replace their governments in a peaceful and orderly manner. The only basis for a peaceful society is providing people with the opportunity to express their opinions and their will, and elections are instrumental in doing so.

Wherever you have votes, you have power.

At the bottom of all the tributes paid to democracy is the little man, walking into the little booth, with a little pencil, making a little cross on a little bit of paper — no amount of rhetoric or voluminous discussion can possibly palliate the overwhelming importance of that point.

There are a lot of problems with democracy. We need to think about how to find the people most qualified for the job.

We are a democracy, and we get the leaders we deserve because we elect them.

We can change the direction of the country with our vote.

I have always voted for who I believed was the best person.

The ballot box is the surest arbiter of disputes among free men.

I trust Canadians' capacity to determine who will sit in their Parliament.

The American public should simply accept no distractions. In our democracy, it is our duty to hold our elected leaders accountable. We do it at the ballot box.

They have not always elected the best leaders, particularly after a long period in which they have not used this facility of free election. You tend to lose the habit.

And in Canada we, you know, it costs us three or $400 million to have an election. You know, it's always been my position that we shouldn't complain about that; that's the price of admission for a living in a great democracy.

We love the ability of the people to influence the actions of decision-makers, of lawmakers and presidents to be removed from or elevated to office by the will of voters, and of the community to connect amongst diverse populations through the ballot box.

When politics is interesting, people go vote.

Canadians want to elect good people to be their voice in Ottawa.

I simply want to do what I can to have the best Congress possible representing the American people.

Everybody has a say, everybody has a voice, because everyone that comes to the House had about 750,000 people they're representing. And you want those voices heard.

I have not met, in Afghanistan, in even the most remote community, anybody who does not want a say in who governs them. Most remote community, I have never met a villager who does not want a vote.

If we go by the National Popular Vote, we'll get more people voting.

Organising free and fair elections is more important than the result itself.

To make democracy work, we must be a notion of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.