“Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe.  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.”  Winston Churchill, November 11, 1947

“Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.”  Albert Einstein, Out of My Later Years

“If you want to be free, there is but one way, it is to guarantee an equally full measure of liberty to all your neighbors.  There is no other.”  Carl Schurz

“I believe in democracy, because it releases the energies of every human being.”  Woodrow Wilson

“The ballot is stronger than the bullet.”  Abraham Lincoln
 
“Democracy is worth dying for, because it is the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man.”  Ronald Reagan

“People often say that, in a democracy, decisions are made by a majority of the people.  Of course, that is not true.  Decisions are made by a majority of those who make themselves heard and who vote. – A very different thing.”  Walter H. Judd

“As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master.  This expresses my idea of democracy.”  Abraham Lincoln.

“The march of freedom and democracy ... will leave Marxism-Leninism on the ash heap of history as it has left other tyrannies which stifle the freedom and muzzle the self-expression of the people.”  Ronald Reagan

“The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.”  Charles de Montesquieu

“No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent.”  Abraham Lincoln

“My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.”  Adlai Stevenson, October 7, 1952

“The great thing about democracy is that it gives every voter a chance to do something stupid.” Aristotle, Politics