C. S. Lewis Quotes

Democracy is not a form of government. It is a political philosophy that can be embodied in various systems of government.

The case for democracy is not esthetic.

I think democracy is not a destination. I don't think socialism is a railway station and if we catch the right train with the right driver, we'll get there. I think it's a way of thinking about things and every generation has to do it again.

There is a peculiar contradiction in trying to be a member of a republic while believing that the universe is a monarchy.

I am not a person of the left. But one of the things, the central idea of democracy is that you have a bigger investment in the system as a whole than you do in any particular outcome.

I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.

Mr Jefferson meant that the American system should be a democracy, and he would rather have let the whole world perish than that this principle, which to him represented all that man was worth, should fail. Mr Hamilton considered democracy a fatal curse, and meant to stop its progress.

[John] Adams was arguing that a separate social order existed that needed to be embodied in senates and his fellow Americans could not accept this and accused him rightly of being obsessed with the English constitution.

If democracy is a means rather than an end, its limits must be determined in the light of the purpose we want it to serve.

Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.

Unfortunately, the true force which propels our endless political disputes, our constant struggles for political advantage, is often not our burning concern for democracy, it is often of our dedication to the principle of the rule of law.

I said when I came into office that I don't want to be a great leader; I want to be a good democrat.

Politicians love power. I love freedom. That is why I am not a politician.

Democracy is not so much a form of government as a set of principles.

Many have ruled well who could not perhaps define a Commonwealth.

The average educated man in America has about as much knowledge of what a political idea is as he has of the principles of counterpoint.

I will govern according to the common weal, but not according to the common will.

Democracy is much too important to be left to public opinion.

Democracy is not majority rule but rule by public opinion.

… the science of government is an experimental science, and that, like all other experimental sciences, it is generally in a state of progression. No man is so obstinate an admirer of the old times as to deny that medicine, surgery, botany, chemistry, engineering, navigation, are better understood now than in any former age. We conceive that it is the same with political science

Popular sovereignty is relatively easy to establish; the other component of democracy, liberty, is far more difficulty to secure.

The ballot box is a license to govern, not a mandate to rule.

Europeans believe in democracy - or, at least, in republican government - but they have considered the alternatives, and continue to do so, and that scandalizes Americans.

The people living in this land, its inhabitants, its citizens, rich and poor, great and humble… these are all the true lords and masters, who have the right to say how and through whom they are to be governed.

Democracy needs to be nurtured and treated with care.