Aung San Suu Kyi Quotes

However, democracy cannot be defined as the existence of parliaments and elections alone.

The bedrock of our democracy is the rule of law and that means we have to have an independent judiciary, judges who can make decisions independent of the political winds that are blowing.

The rule of law means that law and justice are upheld by an independent judiciary. The judgments of the European Court of Justice have to be respected by all. To undermine them, or to undermine the independence of national courts, is to strip citizens of their fundamental rights. The rule of law is not optional in the European Union. It is a must.

A democratic constitution, not supported by democratic institutions in detail, but confined to the central government, not only is not political freedom, but often creates a spirit precisely the reverse, carrying down to the lowest grade in society the desire and ambition of political domination.

For my part, in everything I do, I aim to strengthen democracy in Germany and beyond. The United States is also a strong democracy. As we are seeing in Poland, for example, and also in Hungary, it is important that we have counterweights in democratic systems, and I believe they are still strong in America.

Democracy is our commitment. It is our great legacy, a legacy we simply cannot compromise. Democracy is in our DNA. I have seen the strength of democracy. If there were no democracy then someone like me, Modi, a child born in a poor family, how would he sit here? This is the strength of democracy.

And now the really difficult part: We have to rebuild Iraq into a strong and independent nation that will one day hate the United States.

We should stand by our allies, but we should also stand by our ideals and work with our allies and encourage them to live up to the democratic institutions and traditions that they enjoy.

The court's recent decisions have made life more difficult for the democratic institutions that perform the day- to-day work of our nation.

Democracy is the absolute value that makes for human dignity, as well as the only road to sustained economic development and social justice.

The best measure of how a democracy is functioning is how it allocates the goods of the land, the public trust assets.

I have great confidence in Taiwan's democracy.

It has been observed that a pure democracy if it were practicable would be the most perfect government. Experience has proved that no position is more false than this. The ancient democracies in which the people themselves deliberated never possessed one good feature of government. Their very character was tyranny; their figure deformity.

The Russian people deserve free and fair elections. They deserve to have a democracy.

Will Iraq be a democracy? The question is, 'Will America be a democracy?'

We certainly would not want to have the same kind of democracy as they have in Iraq, I can tell you quite honestly.

Politicians that proclaim big words without meaning rule in democracy. At best they allow themselves to discover that it's better to be rich and healthy than sick and poor and that it is necessary to care for 'good of Poland" - clap clap, hurricane of clapping.

Even when you cherish democratic ideals, it is never easy to turn them into effective democratic institutions. This process will take decades.

President Bush announced tonight that he believes in democracy and that democracy can exist in Iraq. They can have a strong economy, they can have a good health care plan, and they can have a free and fair voting. Iraq? We can't even get this in Florida.

Without a strong educational system — free of government control — democracy is crippled. Knowledge is not only the key to power. It is the citadel of human freedom.

When threatened, the first thing a democracy gives up is democracy.

One of my beliefs very strongly is that any democracy depends on a free, healthy press.

Unless bureaucracy is constantly resisted, it breaks down representative government and overwhelms democracy.

If, then, the courts of justice are to be considered as the bulwarks of a limited Constitution against legislative encroachments, this consideration will afford a strong argument for the permanent tenure of judicial offices, since nothing will contribute so much as this to that independent spirit in the judges which must be essential to the faithful performance of so arduous a duty.

Africa doesn't need strongmen, it needs strong institutions.