Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are...the voters of this country.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme.

Aristotle

If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in government to the utmost.

Aristotle

The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of...the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy.

Woodrow Wilson

A healthy democracy requires a decent society; it requires that we are honorable, generous, tolerant and respectful.

Charles W. Pickering

We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both.

Louis D. Brandeis

Few businessmen are capable of being in politics, they don't understand the democratic process, they have neither the tolerance or the depth it takes. Democracy isn't a business.

Malcolm Forbes

In this possibly terminal phase of human existence, democracy and freedom are more than just ideals to be valued - they may be essential to survival.

Noam Chomsky

Democracy functions best when we have an active citizenry.

Rick Perry

The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference and undernourishment.

Robert M. Hutchins

As citizens of this democracy, you are the rulers and the ruled, the law-givers and the law-abiding, the beginning and the end.

Adlai E. Stevenson

A full and fair discussion is essential to democracy.

George Soros

A democracy requires accountability, and accountability requires transparency.

Barack Obama

Democracy shows not only its power in reforming governments, but in regenerating a race of men and this is the greatest blessing of free governments.

Andrew Jackson

Once you don't vote your ideals... that has serious undermining affects. It erodes the moral basis of our democracy.

Ralph Nader

To make a democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers.

Louis L'Amour

I'm tired of hearing it said that democracy doesn't work. Of course it doesn't work. We are supposed to work it.

Alexander Woollcott

Deliberation and debate is the way you stir the soul of our democracy.

Jesse Jackson

We always hear about the rights of democracy, but the major responsibility of it is participation.

Wynton Marsalis

It is not enough to merely defend democracy. To defend it may be to lose it; to extend it is to strengthen it. Democracy is not property; it is an idea.

Hubert H. Humphrey

But democracy isn't a state of perfection. It has to be improved, and that means constant vigilance.

Antonio Tabucchi

Democracy is not something that happens, you know, just at election time, and it's not something that happens just with one event. It's an ongoing building process.

Jim Hightower

As free citizens in a political democracy, we have a responsibility to be interested and involved in the affairs of the human community, be it at the local or the global level.

Paul Wellstone