Benjamin Franklin Quotes

In a democracy we assume that people can define their own interest and vote that way.

The real strength of the democratic theory in opposition to the fascist or communist is that the fascist frankly states that certain people will tell other people what they shall do to be happy, and those other people have little or nothing to say about it. In theory the communists were to do everything in common, in practice a small group there also tells other people what they shall do to achieve their objectives. So far more nearly than any other form of government, the democratic form has allowed people to shape their own government

Let the people decide whom to vote for, who has more authority. And only people, only our citizens, are able to place the final emphasis, voting for this or that person or political force, or rejecting it. That's democracy.

Voting is the foundational act that breathes life into the principle of the consent of the governed.

Democracy is necessarily despotism, as it establishes an executive power contrary to the general will; all being able to decide against one whose opinion may differ, the will of all is therefore not that of all: which is contradictory and opposite to liberty.

Notwithstanding the oppression and injustice experienced among us from democracy, the genius of the people is in favor of it, and the genius of the people must be consulted.

In democracies the people seem to act as they please.

The consent of the governed" is more than a safeguard against ignorant tyrants: it is an insurance against benevolent despots as well.

What the world of the twenty-first century calls democracy is in fact the fusion of two distinct political traditions. One is liberty—that is individual freedom. The other is popular sovereignty: rule by the people.

Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time. It is the feeling of privacy in the voting booths, the feeling of communion in the libraries, the feeling of vitality everywhere.

I am about to vote. I am about to do something that human beings are rarely allowed to do. I am doing something that did not exist until America.

The primal principle of democracy is the worth and dignity of the individual.

The ballot box is the surest arbiter of disputes among free men.

I like the noise of democracy.

Democracy for us tends to be has to do with who shouts the loudest!

Democracy is the form of government that gives every man the right to be his own oppressor.

Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.

The great thing about democracy is that it gives every voter a chance to do something stupid.

Voting should be the right of the great body of the society…an inconsiderable proportion, or a favored class of it; otherwise a handful of tyrannical nobles, exercising their oppressions by a delegation of their powers, might aspire to the rank of republicans, and claim for their government the honorable title of republic.

How few of the human race have ever enjoyed an opportunity of making an election of government for themselves and their children.

The freedom to persuade and suggest is the essence of the democratic process.

The rule of liberty that all government derives its authority from the consent of the governed, applies only to those who are capable of self government. We govern the Indians without their consent, we govern our territories without their consent, we govern our children without their consent.

Democracy is not an easy form of government, because it is never final; it is a living, changing organism, with a continuous shifting and adjusting of balance between individual freedom and general order.

I shall on all subjects have a policy to recommend, but none to enforce against the will of the people.

The great thing about democracy is we're free to take in all this information and make up our own minds about what is truth.