Quotes about Democracy

We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.

Freedom means the right of people to assemble, organize, and debate openly.

If one could enumerate all the essentials which a sound educational program consider, I would say that the techniques of communication, which make for literacy, are our first obligation, and more so in a cemocracy than in any other kind of society, because it depends on a literate electorate.

Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends [life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness] it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government...

Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.

If once the people become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions.

The government you elect is the government you deserve.

Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people.

Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.

That liberty [is pure] which is to go to all, and not to the few or the rich alone. (to Horatio Gates, 1798)

Wherever the people are well informed they can be trusted with their own government

To live under the American Constitution is the greatest political privilege that was ever accorded to the human race.