After each war there is a little less democracy to save.

-Atkinson, Brooks
Once Around the Sun.

Democracy means government by discussion, but it is only effective if you can stop people talking.

-1st Earl
  Speech, Oxford,14  Jun.

Think of what our Nation stands for, Books from Boots'and country lanes, Free speech, free passes, class distinction, Democracy and proper drains. Lord, put beneathThy special care One-eighty-nine Cadogan Square.

-Betjeman, SirJohn
  Old Lights for New Chancels,'In Westminster  Abbey'.

A total work of art is only possible in the context of the whole of society. Everyone will be a necessary co- creator of a social architecture, and, so long as anyone cannot participate, the ideal form of democracy has not beenreached.Whether peopleare artists, assemblers of machines or nurses, it is a matter of participating in the whole.

-Beuys,Joseph
  From an interview with G  Jappe (translated by J Wheelwright), in Studio International, vol.184, no.950, Dec. Quoted in C Harrison and P  Wood (eds)  Art in Theory1900^1990 (1992).

The worst thing I can sayabout democracy is that it has tolerated the right honourable gentleman [Neville Chamberlain] for four and a half years.

-Bevan, Aneurin
  House of Commons, 23  Jul.

The trouble in modern democracy is that men do not approach to leadership until they have lost the desire to lead anyone.

-Beveridge,William Henry Beveridge, 1st Baron
  In the Observer,15  Apr.

A democracy must remain at home in all matters that affect the nature of her institutions. Theyare of a nature to call for the undivided attention and devotion of the entire nation.We do not want the racial antipathies or national antagonisms of the Old World transformed to this continentöas they will, should we becomea part of European politics. The people of this country are overwhelmingly for a policy of neutrality.

-Borah,William Edgar
  Radio broadcast, 22 Feb.

But, thanks to wine-less and democracy, We've still our stage where truth calls spade a spade!

-Browning, Robert
  'Aristophanes' Apology', stanza1.

The experience of democracy is like the experience of life itselföalways changing, infinite in its variety, sometimesturbulent and allthemorevaluableforhaving been tested by adversity.

-Carter,Jimmy (James Earl)
  Address to the Parliament of India, 2  Jun.

Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead.

-Chesterton, G(ilbert) K(eith)
  Orthodoxy, ch.4.

Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated.

-Chesterton, G(ilbert) K(eith)
  In the NewYork Times,1 Feb.

No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.

-Churchill, Lord Randolph Henry Spencer
  Speech in the House of Commons,11 Nov.

We look forward to the time when this moment will be seen as a turning point: the day when democracy was renewed in Scotland, when we revitalized our place in this our United Kingdom.

-Dewar, Donald Campbell
  Speech at the official opening of the Scottish Parliament, 1  Jul.

So two cheers for democracy: one because it admits varietyand two because it permits criticism. Two cheers are quite enough: there is no occasion to give three. Only Love the Beloved Republic deserves that.

-Forster, E(dward) M(organ)
Two Cheers for Democracy,'What I Believe'. The phrase'Love the Beloved Republic' is taken from Swinburne's poem'Hertha'.

In a democracy dissent is an act of faith. Like medicine, the test of its value is not in its taste, but its effects.

-Fulbright,J(ames) William
  Speech to the US Senate, 21  Apr.

Democracy! Bah! When I hear that word I reach for my feather Boa!

-Ginsberg, Allen
   Journalentry, Oct. Collected in Journals: Early Fifties Early Sixties,'NewYork City'.

   The Soviet people want full-blooded and unconditional democracy.

-Gorbachev, Mikhail Sergeyevich
  Speech,  Jul.

Some comrades apparently find it hard to understand that democracy is just a slogan.

-Gorbachev, Mikhail Sergeyevich
  In the Observer,1 Feb.

They that are discontented under monarchy call it tyranny; and they that are displeased with aristocracy call it oligarchy; so also, they which find themselves grieved under a democracy call it anarchy, which signifies the want of government; and yet I think no man believes that want of government is any new kind of government.

-Hobbes,Thomas
Leviathan, pt.2, ch.19.

Democracy is not a polite employer† The only way out of elective office is to get sick or die or get kicked out.

-Hoover, Herbert Clark
  The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover, vol.2.