Bernie Sanders Quotes

Young people need to re-engage with politics. The life of democracy depends on it. We've left it to the stuff shirts, and obviously they haven't been minding the store.

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.

You can't afford to hate politics. The politics of this country is democracy. Democracy is by the people, of the people and for the people. The day people stop taking active part in the politics of this country, democracy will not survive.

The only way change happens is when people become more significantly involved in the political process. We have to increase voter turnout and citizen participation so that people know what's going on and demand a government that works for everybody and not just the one percent.

Without the political parties and the volunteering work of their members day in, day out, we would have a very different sort of politics and society.

So few people vote these days, and I think it's partly because they don't feel like the institution really means anything to them. If you want them to vote, give them opportunities to do something else other than vote, to help.

Campaign ads are the backbone of American democracy if American democracy suffered a gigantic spinal injury.

Politics are close to me, but there are different ways of participating in politics.

Crucially, I'd like to thank Labour party members up and down the country for sticking with us. For their active citizenship, their willingness to engage in our democracy, and for being there at the cutting edge of making our democracy work.

I came into American politics and into this political system proud of politics and the way we make decisions.

Events in America show the extent to which democracy there is fuelled by populism - Barack Obama's victory is a manifestation not of Washington's need for change, but of America's. That is not how democracy works in England.

Forget the polls and remember the people.

Citizens are refined, cultivated, and very political. I believe in the legitimacy of their participation.

The fundamentalist call has resonance because it invited men to participate… in contrast to a political culture that reduces citizens to spectators and asked them to leave things to their rulers.

I was always fascinated by politics, and I was exposed to it quite a lot.

The mythology is that political change happens only in election years. The truth is you build from election to election.

It's a shame and a disgrace that so few people take part in the political process.

What's sad is that we can have a reality-television performer for president without incorporating the other aspects of reality television - like voting and voter engagement.

I don't know why, but I've had an interest and passion for politics.

Because the referendum in 2016 wasn't just about our relationship with the E.U., it was about millions of people and their relationship with politics as a whole.

You put these politicians in office, but then you've got to tell them what you want them to do. And it's intimidating to most people. I was intimidated by it. I mean, calling my senator or writing my senator? I'm like, what do I say? What do I do? But we're showing people that the political process is actually less intimidating than we think.

I'm a big fan of the vigor of civil society, political engagement, and public life in many parts of Latin America.

Through democracy we can address the basic needs of the people, involve them as participants in planning and restore the authority of the government.

Democracy is a system where people are counted not weighed.

I think to understand how the democratic process works is the most important thing, so people don't get frightened by it, and get put off, and give up.