Ai Weiwei Quotes

The imposition of a certain conception of democracy and human rights should be opposed.

Communist countries consider all people, even their own, as secondary and only of value as they serve the state. Nevertheless those of us who live in democratic countries are always shocked and angered by the apparent indifference that a Communist regime has for what happens to individuals

Whereas Canada and our allies see the rule of law, freedom of speech, and fair elections as the guardrails to a more secure world, Beijing sees them as a threat to the rule of the Communist Party.

But there is a big difference in working for the West and working for a totalitarian state.

The democratic state can sometimes abuse its power as much as those who seek to destroy it abuse fundamental rights and democratic practices.

I am a socialist, so I am not worried about socialism. I am worried about dictators who are putting everyone into a socialist state for their own benefit.

I think, as a general matter, clearly, the United States globally supports the development of democracy and the democratic yearnings of all people.

Also, when you escape a Communist regime, you treasure liberty and you understand that as government and state expand, liberty must contract.

We believe that this is not right for a democracy to make revolutions the beacon of promoting democracy.

What if democracy does not serve liberty? This question is seldom asked in the West, where democracy is often seen as synonymous with liberalism.

In a free world there is, alas, more common crime than in a dictatorial system.

If we expose the Chinese to our freedoms, it may create a greater hunger for democracy, reform and liberties in China.

The freedom to express yourself without fear - that perhaps is something we in the U.S. take for granted. It's almost inconceivable to think we would be afraid to express our opinions or thoughts, but that's not true for all parts of the world now, and certainly not before World War II.

Chinese citizens have never had the right to really express their opinions; in the constitution it says you can, but in the real world it is more dangerous. In the west people think it's a right they're born with. Here it's a right given by the government, and one that's not really practised.

The test of democracy is freedom of criticism.

If I were a citizen of Russia, I would resist this communist dictatorship as vigorously as I have endeavored to resist the encroachment upon our democratic institutions in America. I hold that government of one class, denying the other classes the right to participate is tyranny.

I believe in defending democracy by preserving democracy, not by descending to the use of the same weapons used in dictatorships, whether of the Nazi or Communist stripe.

In oligarchies, militarism has leaped forward, while in those nations which have retained democracy militarism has waned.

I think that democratic communities have a natural taste for freedom: left to themselves, they will seek it, cherish it, and view any privation of it with regret. But for equality, their passion is ardent, insatiable, incessant, invincible: they call for equality in freedom; and if they cannot obtain that, they still call for equality in slavery.

People who live in the post-totalitarian system know only too well that the question of whether one or several political parties are in power, and how these parties define and label themselves, is of far less importance than the question of whether or not it is possible to live like a human being.

Russian people are not stupid. They know that the system we are living in is undemocratic.

In the United States, we can do almost anything we want. It's not like Egypt, where you're going to get murdered by the security forces.

There's a serious and worrying return to the fall of democracy in Spain, and it's not just us who are realising that.

If the Chinese government gets carried away with denying basic rights, then there will be a pushback from within.

It's not mainland China that rubs me up the wrong way, it is the dictatorship that rubs me up the wrong way. It's the freedom that we Chinese people are not allowed that rubs me up the wrong way.