Democracy

"In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the constitution."

"To be a citizen in a democracy, a human being must be given a healthy start."

"Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred."

"Elections belong to the people. It's their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters."

"It is an axiom in my mind, that our liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people themselves, and that too of the people with a certain degree of instruction. This it is the business of the State to effect, and on a general plan."

"Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve."

"Freedom must be distinguished from democracy, with which it is often confused."

"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."

"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy."

"We must hold to a rigid accountability those public servants who show unfaithfulness to the interests of the nation or inability to rise to the high level of the new demands upon our strength and our resources."

"A great democracy has got to be progressive or it will soon cease to be great or a democracy."

"Pure logic is the ruin of the spirit."