John W. Davis Quotes

American is the first democratic nation-state.

The myth that John Locke was the philosopher behind the American Republic, is easily refuted by examining how Locke's philosophy steered Thomas Jefferson, for example.

There was once in this country a man by the name of Thomas Jefferson, supposed to be a Democrat—a man whose principles and policies are not very prevalent among Democrats today.

As if they could foresee the unforeseeable, the founding fathers laid down principles that have served to prevent the transformation of individual to manipulable quantity, of citizen to subject.

I consider Paine our greatest political thinker…. We never had a sounder intelligence in this Republic. He was the equal of Washington in making American liberty possible. Where Washington performed Paine devised and wrote. The deeds of one in the world were matched by the deeds of the other with his pen.

Mr. [Thomas] Jefferson founded the Democratic Party and President Roosevelt has dumfounded it

The Founders were not democrats and socialists..., but conservatives who had a healthy distrust of political passions and who devised a complex system designed to frustrate the schemes of social redeemers and others convinced of their own invincible virtue.

The question in brief, is whether democracy and freedom are values to be preserved or threats to be avoided . . . democracy and freedom are more than values to be treasured; they may well be essential to survival.

By birth Mr. Roosevelt is an aristocrat. An unfeigned interest in the lives of his fellow millions has made a democrat of him, and through both channels he draws that social understanding …. But partly from the consciousness of a lack of sympathy for his "class," and partly from the inevitable sense that his lot is cast with the multitude, it is the democrat in him which has gained the permanent ascendency.

Strange isn’t it? We are all democrats now.

The USA [is] the only society to be born both ‘modern’ and ‘democratic’.

To people in virtually any age before our own, the only argument that mattered was between extremely small government and no government at all. Extremely small government meant there was at least some law and order; no government meant that there was not.

We are living out the liberal dream of our founders. The Constitution, the very liberal document - we have gone beyond English common law, which was the basis of law in the West.

When the Founding Fathers arrived here in Philadelphia to forge a new nation, they didn't come as Democrats or Republicans or to nominate a presidential candidate. They came as patriots who feared party politics.

The Democratic Party has been my party over 50 years, where I waged my battle to change America and change the world from its progressive wing.

The Founding Fathers of our nation believed in the people. They created a new nation based on the radical notion that the people could be free and trusted - that the nation would be great if you trusted the people to be good.

I'm proud to be a Democrat, and I feel pretty strongly that the country would be better off with Democrats in charge.

I'm not a moderniser. I accept that things like escalators do need an upgrade every now and then, but I think the fundamental principles of Conservatism have a long thread running through them that does not need to be modernised.

As Democrats and progressives look to the future, we should remember our most essential values.

Our Constitution framers were men and women with great foresight. They understood the majesty of the rule of law, and of rule by laws.

When President Obama took office, I was transitioning out of the military and just seeing that he was taking the country in a direction that I didn't think was consistent with the Founding Fathers and with our constitutional roots.

I am an originalist, to begin with. So, I am a constitutional conservative. I believe that the Constitution enshrines some universal ideals that make our country strong and that are consistent with truth, and so that's the basic thing.

I read Mitch Daniels's book, 'Keeping the Republic,' several times.

I profoundly believe that the Democratic Party is the only vehicle we have to put a check on Donald Trump.

Contemporary social democracy is what I believe is the right concept.