#democracy

If we can't think for ourselves, if we're unwilling to question authority, then we're just putty in the hands of those in power. But if the citizens are educated and form their own opinions, then those in power work for us. In every country, we should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of Rights. With it comes a certain decency, humility and community spirit. In the demon-haunted world that we inhabit by virtue of being human, this may be all that stands between us and the enveloping darkness. ↗

— Carl Sagan

#education #humanity #rights #science #skepticism

A good education helps us make sense of the world and find our way in it ↗

— Mike Rose

#education #school #education

Had he lived some centuries ago, in the brightly coloured civilizations of the past, he would have had a definite status, his rank and his income would have corresponded. But in his day the angel of Democracy had arisen, enshadowing the classes with leathern wings, and proclaiming, "All men are equal--all men, that is to say, who possess umbrellas... ↗

— E.M. Forster

#democracy #equality #inequality #equality

You show me a capitalist, and I'll show you a bloodsucker ↗

— Malcolm X

#democracy #freedom #history #hope #individualism

Both groups [of pundits] were critics, and that is the heart of the problem. If you are a pundit, you seem so smart when you are telling the President what he did wrong… This [is] mostly BS. ↗

— Jeffrey A. Miller

#democracy-fascism #democracy-freedom #democracy-voting #democrats #elections

By creating a society in which all people, of all colors, were granted freedom and citizenship, the Haitian Revolution forever transformed the world. It was a central part of the destruction of slavery in the Americas, and therefore a crucial moment in the history of democracy, one that laid the foundation for the continuing struggles for human rights everywhere. In this sense we are all descendents of the Haitain Revolution, and responsible to these ancestors. ↗

— Laurent Dubois

#haiti #haitian-revolution #human-rights #revolution #freedom

Wenn wir uns der Verfolgung des freien Geistes während der Diktatur besinnen, werden wir die Freiheit jedes Gedankens und jeder Kritik schützen, so sehr sie sich auch gegen uns selbst richten mag." [Ansprache am 8. Mai 1985 in der Gedenkstunde im Plenarsaal des Deutschen Bundestages] ↗

— Richard von Weizsäcker

#democracy #dictatorship #freedom #persecution #politics

Our mission is not to impose our peculiar institutions upon other nations by physical force or diplomatic treachery but rather by internal peace and prosperity to solve the problem of self-government and reconcile democratic freedom with national stability. ↗

— Benjamin Harrison

#foreign-relations #government #freedom

The more degrees of freedom there are in practice, the wider the discussion and debate can be. ↗

— Thomas Newkirk

#freedom #ideas #freedom

Der Staat, der nur wegen und aus der Freiheit seiner Menschen besteht, darf sich nicht gegen seine Schöpfer wenden. ↗

— Heribert Prantl

#freedom #rechtsstaat #freedom