#democracies

Democracies are indeed slow to make war, but once embarked upon a martial venture are equally slow to make peace and reluctant to make a tolerable, rather than a vindictive, peace. ↗

— Reinhold Niebuhr

#embarked #equally #indeed #make #martial

Unlike despotisms, modern democracies are not supposed promiscuously to accumulate property and then charge their taxpayers to maintain it. But that is what they do. Governments are always trying to extend their responsibilities and their estates, and it is very hard for parliaments to reign them in. ↗

— James Buchan

#always #charge #democracies #estates #extend

There is one safeguard known generally to the wise, which is an advantage and security to all, but especially to democracies as against despots - suspicion. ↗

— Demosthenes

#against #democracies #despots #especially #generally

The problem with the United Nations is that while democracy within nations is the best available form of government, democracy among nations can be a moral disaster - especially if some nations are not democracies. ↗

— Jonah Goldberg

#available #best #democracies #democracy #disaster

I do not believe that the values which the Western democracies consider essential to civilization can survive in a world rent by the international anarchy of nationalism and the economic anarchy of competitive enterprise. ↗

— Arthur Henderson

#believe #civilization #competitive #consider #democracies