Michael Sandel Quotes

Democracy does not require perfect equality, but it does require that citizens share a common life. What matters is that people of different backgrounds and social positions encounter one another, and bump up against one another, in the course of ordinary life.

And they understand that to be an effective member of a democracy, you have to accept responsibility.

In a well-functioning democracy, people frequently encounter topics and points of view that they did not specifically select but from which they learn. Those encounters can change minds and, even, the course of lives.

I would say democracy once meant an organizational society and a state, in which the individual citizen is - feels - responsible, and acts responsibly, and participates in decision-making.

The job of a citizen is to keep his mouth open.

Democracy is not just voting for your leaders; it's really premised upon ordinary citizens understanding the issues.

Our democracy is not something to be taken for granted. You have to fight for it. You have to commit yourself to working for it - for the long haul.

The most important political office is that of the private citizen.

We are in a democratic society. It's our job to question.

There can be no daily democracy without daily citizenship.

Democracy is something that you must learn each generation. It has to be taught.

Democracy is the art of thinking independently together.

A constitutional democracy is in serious trouble if its citizenry does not have a certain degree of education and civic virtue.

What's hard, it seems, is living up to the expectations Democracy imposes upon those who would participate in society.

My dream of politics all my life has been that it is the common business, that it is something we owe to each other to understand and discuss with absolute frankness.

The effective functioning of our constitutional democracy depends upon the participation in public life of a citizenry that is well informed

Among the foremost benefits of free government is that education of the intelligence and of the sentiments which is carried down to the very lowest ranks of the people when they are called to take a part in acts which directly affect the great interests of their country.

America is a country which produces citizens who will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but won't cross the street to vote.

We do not say that a man who takes no interest in politics is a man who minds his own business; we say that he has no business here at all.

Our democracy is dependent on people who passionately cherish the ideals of a democracy. Every man is created equal with an inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It's a wonderful idea, and it takes people who cherish that idea to be actively involved in the process.

Democracy should be practiced not every six years, but every day.

A democracy is predicated on an educated citizenry. You cannot have a democracy with people that are more interested in what Nicole Kidman is doing or whoever the latest fashion model is.

This is why universities, and civil society more generally, are so important for a democracy like ours, founded on a genuine idealism that we have a hard time holding on to. They provide a space to question whatever we are doing in the name of things we say we believe in or might believe in.

Courage is the lifeblood of democracy.

Democracy represents the disbelief in all great men and in all elite societies: everybody is everybody's equal.