George Soros Quotes

There are many who criticise the United Nations. And those of us who know this institution well know that it is not immune from criticism. But those who argue against the United Nations advance no credible argument as to what should replace it. Whatever its imperfections, the United Nations represents a necessary democracy of states.

I personally believe that those who are leaders with political power over the world will be forced some day, sooner or later, to give way to common sense and the will of the people.

How do we get democracy at the international level? That's our problem. and it's essentially the same problem people faced in the 18th Century when they tried to get democracy nationally. Now we need it internationally.

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

For the People, Despite the People

International institutions like the UN can only be as effective as its members allow it to be.

If there’s not a good feedback loop from the people to the government, and if you have rule of the bureaucrat — if the bureaucracy is in charge, then what meaning does democracy actually have? If the people cannot vote and have their will be decided by their elected representatives in the form of the president and the Senate and the House, then we don’t live in a democracy. We live in a bureaucracy.

I really feel that political will is born out of popular will.

No one wants the United Nations to suffer the fate of the League of Nations, which collapsed because it lacked real leverage. This is possible if influential countries bypass the United Nations and take military action without Security Council authorization.

Democracy doesn't recognize east or west; democracy is simply people's will. Therefore, I do not acknowledge that there are various models of democracy; there is just democracy itself.

Where there is little or no public opinion, there is likely to be bad government, which sooner or later becomes autocratic government.

International institutions ought to be, as the national ones in democratic countries, established by the peoples and for the peoples.

International law is a fiction abused callously, or ignored ruthlessly by those nations that, unlike the Western Democracies, never took it seriously in the first place..

Governments can expect to act multilaterally or unilaterally—but not have it both ways at the same time.

The voice of the people must be heeded.

The government is just the people acting together.

The government is just us.

Polling can undermine the ability of officials to lay out, debate, analyze, and implement their plans. By turning to instant [electronic] polls we would eliminate the captain and the officers and leave every shipboard decision to the passengers.

Our government has become a system rather than a living expression of the popular will.

I shall on all subjects have a policy to recommend, but none to enforce against the will of the people.

The public has to have a head, and if the President takes the heads away, the public will have his.

Are the governors such exceptionally gifted men as to enable them … to represent the masses and act in the interests of all men better than all men would be able to act for themselves?

Elections are the means we use to establish the will of the people in order to assure the rule of the people.

The great advantage of representatives is their capacity of discussing public affairs. For this, the people collectively are extremely unfit, which is one of the chief inconveniences of a democracy.

Free government is government by public opinion. Upon the soundness and integrity of public opinion depends the destiny of democracy.