Edward Snowden Quotes

Our Constitution is the envy of the world.

Whereas the constitution of … Holland is in its principles a popular representation, it is necessary that the right of the people be duly ascertained; that the members of the States be rendered responsible to them for their conduct and be precluded from taking any decisive step without their consent …

Democracy is good for everybody.

American is the first democratic nation-state.

The transformation of the United States from a traditional republic to a democratic nation run in large measure by a single executive took a couple of hundred years.

Elected representatives are so embedded in the basic notion of what constitutes a democratic nation that it has become indistinguishable from any other form of democratic governance.

When the body of the people is possessed of the supreme power, it is called a democracy.

The people are the government, administering it by their agents; they are the government, the sovereign power.

A messy participatory process is representative democracy at its best.

Being 'at the mercy of legislative majorities' is merely another way of describing the basic American plan: representative democracy.

Democracy is not an instant coffee.

We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.

To find ways of practicing democracy, not ways of orating about it, is our great problem.

Of course democracy is good, but it is a process, not a prescription.

A good constitution is infinitely better than the best despot.

I always assume that democracy is the only good form of government, quite frankly, and democracy is always to be preferred.

My message is that Democracy is not an alien invention. It is a way of solving problems in our society.

A radical ... and revolutionary ... attack upon the fundamental basic principle of representative democracy for free people.

It is the healthiest thing in a democracy when the people who are elected exert power.

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

The first line of the U. S. Constitution is “We the people” … in thriving democracies any time that any player takes a key decision that ignores or evades “We the people” he violates the spirit of democracy and condemns himself to illegitimacy.

The opponents of direct legislation and the recall, however they may phrase their opposition, in reality believe the people cannot be trusted.

Public participation in the process of government is the essence of democracy.

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.