The best Quotes on Earth!

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."

[Remarks on the 20th Anniversary of the Voice of America; Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, February 26, 1962]

John F. Kennedy

Tags: democracy america censorship freedom-of-thought marketplace-of-ideas media news openness secrecy truthfulness values

Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us."

[The One Un-American Act, Speech to the Author's Guild Council in New York, on receiving the 1951 Lauterbach Award (December 3, 1952)]

William O. Douglas

Tags: liberty freedom democracy freedom-of-thought first-amendment freedom-of-speech

A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.

Theodore Roosevelt

Tags: civic-duty democracy elections voters

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty or democracy?

Mahatma Gandhi

Tags: politics liberty society war democracy loss totalitarianism fascism

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

Winston S. Churchill

Tags: democracy elite elitism elitist meritocracy peasant voter voting

Democracies should be a delirium of choices - more options, not fewer; more avenues to travel, not fewer.

B.W. Powe

Tags: choice democracy

People shouldn't be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people.

Alan Moore

Tags: equality misattributed democracy government

Social conservatism and neoconservatism have revived authoritarian conservatism, and not for the better of conservatism or American democracy. True conservatism is cautious and prudent. Authoritarianism is rash and radical. American democracy has benefited from true conservatism, but authoritarianism offers potentially serious trouble for any democracy.

John W. Dean

Tags: politics democracy authoritarianism conservatism

I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run.

Alexis de Tocqueville

Tags: democracy