Saturday, January 14, 2006
Quotable Quotes Ethiopia could use
Let me start with this:
We are usually convinced more easily by reasons we have found ourselves than by those which have occurred to others.
Blaise Pascal
However, we all might learn something from other’s experiences.
Hear Ye! Hear Ye!
To Meles Zenawi and Co.
He who fox-like got his rank, Is wolf-like in his office.
V. A. Zhukovsky
I personally call the type of government which can be removed without violence 'democracy,' and the other, 'tyranny.'
Karl Popper
The ultimate authority ... resides in the people alone.
James Madison
Democracy means having the choice. Dictatorship means being given the choice.
Jeannine Luczak
It is a paradox that every dictator has climbed to power on the ladder of free speech. Immediately on attaining power each dictator has suppressed all free speech except his own.
Herbert Clark Hoover
The price of the democratic way of life is a growing appreciation of people's differences, not merely as tolerable, but as the essence of a rich and rewarding human experience.
Jerome Nathanson
Only the person who does not evade conflict and directs his efforts in keeping with the course of society's development can be an effective leader.
G. V. Plekhanov
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
George Bernard Shaw
Those who make peaceful change impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
John F. Kennedy
Anarchy is the sure consequence of tyranny; for no power that is not limited by laws can ever be protected by them.
John Milton
He who strikes terror into others is himself in continual fear.
Claudian
As a rule, dictatorships guarantee safe streets and terror of the doorbell. In democracy the streets may be unsafe after dark, but the most likely visitor in the early hours will be the milkman.
Adam Michnik
The ballot is stronger than the bullet.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
Democracy is the government of the people, by the people, for the people.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
Elections belong to the people. It is their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.
Abraham Lincoln
The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.
Frederick Douglass
Freedom is when the people can speak, democracy is when the government listens.
Alastair Farrugia
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a lamb contesting the vote!
Benjamin Franklin
Dictatorships are one-way streets. Democracy boasts two-way traffic.
Albert Moravia
A free society is one where it is safe to be unpopular.
Adlai Ewing Stevenson
Intellectual freedom is the only guarantee of a scientific - democratic approach to politics, economic development, and culture.
Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov
As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
As long as the differences and diversities of mankind exist, democracy must allow for compromise, for accommodation, and for the recognition of differences.
Eugene McCarthy
Firmness in decision is often merely a form of stupidity. It indicates an inability to think the same thing out twice.
H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)
Democracy means: Sticking to the rules of the game, even when the referee is not looking.
Manfred Hausmann
When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.
Plato
To The Opposition
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead
Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope...building a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.
Robert F. Kennedy
There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.
Machiavelli
Nonviolence is not a weapon of the weak. It is a weapon of the strongest and bravest.
Mahatma Gandhi
A "No" uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a "Yes" merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble.
Mahatma Gandhi
To The Federal Police (and the Red Berets?)
If...the machine of government...is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.
Henry David Thoreau
Governments need armies to protect them from their enslaved and oppressed subjects.
Lev Tolstoy
It is the old practice of despots to use a part of the people to keep the rest in order.
Thomas Jefferson
He who allows oppression, shares the crime.
Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles Darwin
To The People of Ethiopia
It is wrong to ask who will rule. The ability to vote a bad government out of office is enough. That is democracy.
Karl Popper
Liberty is the possibility of doubting, the possibility of making a mistake, the possibility of searching and experimenting, the possibility of saying No to any authority - literary, artistic, philosophic, religious, social, and even political.
Ignazio Silone
Democracy is based upon the conviction that there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people.
Harry Emerson Fosdick
In a democracy dissent is an act of faith. Like medicine, the test of its value is not in its taste, but in its effects.
J. W. Fulbright
The job of a citizen is to keep his mouth open.
Gunther Grass
Those wanting to improve democracy in their countries should not wait for permission.
Bulent Ecevit
Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the state becomes lawless or corrupt.
Mahatma Gandhi
Democracy cannot be forced upon a society, neither is it a gift that can be held forever. It has to be struggled hard for and defended everyday anew.
Heinz Galinski
General rebellions and revolts of a whole people never were encouraged now or at any time. They are always provoked.
Edmuns Burke
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.
Edward Abbey
There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.
Elie Wiesel
Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want rain without thunder and lightning.
Frederick Douglass
Arbitrary rule has its basis, not in the strength of the state or the chief, but in the moral weakness of the individual, who submits almost without resistance to the domineering power.
Friedrich Hatzel
Those believing they have not voted are mistaken, for their indifference affects all our futures.
M.A. Denck
They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety.
Benjamin Franklin
The highest measure of democracy is neither the 'extent of freedom' nor the 'extent of equality', but rather the highest measure of participation.
A. d. Benoist
Democracy is not something you believe in or a place to hang your hat, but it's something you do. You participate. If you stop doing it, democracy crumbles.
Abbie Hoffman
Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth.
Aldous Huxley
Remorse--Regret that one waited so long to do it.
H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)
Those against politics are in favor of the politics inflicted upon them.
Bertolt Brecht
Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote.
George Jean Nathan
Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them.
Frederick Douglass
Democracy is ….that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.
H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)
It's dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire
What you do is of little significance, but it is very important that you do it.
Mahatma Gandhi
To The International Community
It's not the voting that's democracy; it's the counting.
Tom Stoppard
I am strongly convinced that the people or society is the best and the most unerring critic.
Vissarion Belinsky
In actual fact those who do not care for politics and sit on the fence do indeed side for a political party: The ruling party.
Max Frisch
The human race has entered a stage where we are all dependent on each other. No other country or nation should be regarded in total separation from another….
Mikhail Gorbachev
It is not only for what we do that we are held responsible, but also for what we do not do.Moliere
Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.
Paulo Freire
When the government fears the people, that is LIBERTY. When people fear the government, that is TYRANNY.
Unknown
When a nation's government becomes more fearful of its citizens' rights than protective of them, that nation's future is only despotism and extinction.
Unknown
Whatever field of human activity one may take, only those trends that are in harmony with the needs of society show rapid progress.
Nikolai Chernyshevsky
Everybody's for democracy in principle. It's only in practice that the thing gives rise to stiff objections.
Meg Greenfield
We are usually convinced more easily by reasons we have found ourselves than by those which have occurred to others.
Blaise Pascal
However, we all might learn something from other’s experiences.
Hear Ye! Hear Ye!
To Meles Zenawi and Co.
He who fox-like got his rank, Is wolf-like in his office.
V. A. Zhukovsky
I personally call the type of government which can be removed without violence 'democracy,' and the other, 'tyranny.'
Karl Popper
The ultimate authority ... resides in the people alone.
James Madison
Democracy means having the choice. Dictatorship means being given the choice.
Jeannine Luczak
It is a paradox that every dictator has climbed to power on the ladder of free speech. Immediately on attaining power each dictator has suppressed all free speech except his own.
Herbert Clark Hoover
The price of the democratic way of life is a growing appreciation of people's differences, not merely as tolerable, but as the essence of a rich and rewarding human experience.
Jerome Nathanson
Only the person who does not evade conflict and directs his efforts in keeping with the course of society's development can be an effective leader.
G. V. Plekhanov
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
George Bernard Shaw
Those who make peaceful change impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
John F. Kennedy
Anarchy is the sure consequence of tyranny; for no power that is not limited by laws can ever be protected by them.
John Milton
He who strikes terror into others is himself in continual fear.
Claudian
As a rule, dictatorships guarantee safe streets and terror of the doorbell. In democracy the streets may be unsafe after dark, but the most likely visitor in the early hours will be the milkman.
Adam Michnik
The ballot is stronger than the bullet.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
Democracy is the government of the people, by the people, for the people.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
Elections belong to the people. It is their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.
Abraham Lincoln
The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.
Frederick Douglass
Freedom is when the people can speak, democracy is when the government listens.
Alastair Farrugia
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a lamb contesting the vote!
Benjamin Franklin
Dictatorships are one-way streets. Democracy boasts two-way traffic.
Albert Moravia
A free society is one where it is safe to be unpopular.
Adlai Ewing Stevenson
Intellectual freedom is the only guarantee of a scientific - democratic approach to politics, economic development, and culture.
Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov
As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
As long as the differences and diversities of mankind exist, democracy must allow for compromise, for accommodation, and for the recognition of differences.
Eugene McCarthy
Firmness in decision is often merely a form of stupidity. It indicates an inability to think the same thing out twice.
H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)
Democracy means: Sticking to the rules of the game, even when the referee is not looking.
Manfred Hausmann
When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.
Plato
To The Opposition
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead
Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope...building a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.
Robert F. Kennedy
There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.
Machiavelli
Nonviolence is not a weapon of the weak. It is a weapon of the strongest and bravest.
Mahatma Gandhi
A "No" uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a "Yes" merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble.
Mahatma Gandhi
To The Federal Police (and the Red Berets?)
If...the machine of government...is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.
Henry David Thoreau
Governments need armies to protect them from their enslaved and oppressed subjects.
Lev Tolstoy
It is the old practice of despots to use a part of the people to keep the rest in order.
Thomas Jefferson
He who allows oppression, shares the crime.
Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles Darwin
To The People of Ethiopia
It is wrong to ask who will rule. The ability to vote a bad government out of office is enough. That is democracy.
Karl Popper
Liberty is the possibility of doubting, the possibility of making a mistake, the possibility of searching and experimenting, the possibility of saying No to any authority - literary, artistic, philosophic, religious, social, and even political.
Ignazio Silone
Democracy is based upon the conviction that there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people.
Harry Emerson Fosdick
In a democracy dissent is an act of faith. Like medicine, the test of its value is not in its taste, but in its effects.
J. W. Fulbright
The job of a citizen is to keep his mouth open.
Gunther Grass
Those wanting to improve democracy in their countries should not wait for permission.
Bulent Ecevit
Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the state becomes lawless or corrupt.
Mahatma Gandhi
Democracy cannot be forced upon a society, neither is it a gift that can be held forever. It has to be struggled hard for and defended everyday anew.
Heinz Galinski
General rebellions and revolts of a whole people never were encouraged now or at any time. They are always provoked.
Edmuns Burke
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.
Edward Abbey
There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.
Elie Wiesel
Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want rain without thunder and lightning.
Frederick Douglass
Arbitrary rule has its basis, not in the strength of the state or the chief, but in the moral weakness of the individual, who submits almost without resistance to the domineering power.
Friedrich Hatzel
Those believing they have not voted are mistaken, for their indifference affects all our futures.
M.A. Denck
They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety.
Benjamin Franklin
The highest measure of democracy is neither the 'extent of freedom' nor the 'extent of equality', but rather the highest measure of participation.
A. d. Benoist
Democracy is not something you believe in or a place to hang your hat, but it's something you do. You participate. If you stop doing it, democracy crumbles.
Abbie Hoffman
Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth.
Aldous Huxley
Remorse--Regret that one waited so long to do it.
H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)
Those against politics are in favor of the politics inflicted upon them.
Bertolt Brecht
Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote.
George Jean Nathan
Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them.
Frederick Douglass
Democracy is ….that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.
H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)
It's dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire
What you do is of little significance, but it is very important that you do it.
Mahatma Gandhi
To The International Community
It's not the voting that's democracy; it's the counting.
Tom Stoppard
I am strongly convinced that the people or society is the best and the most unerring critic.
Vissarion Belinsky
In actual fact those who do not care for politics and sit on the fence do indeed side for a political party: The ruling party.
Max Frisch
The human race has entered a stage where we are all dependent on each other. No other country or nation should be regarded in total separation from another….
Mikhail Gorbachev
It is not only for what we do that we are held responsible, but also for what we do not do.Moliere
Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.
Paulo Freire
When the government fears the people, that is LIBERTY. When people fear the government, that is TYRANNY.
Unknown
When a nation's government becomes more fearful of its citizens' rights than protective of them, that nation's future is only despotism and extinction.
Unknown
Whatever field of human activity one may take, only those trends that are in harmony with the needs of society show rapid progress.
Nikolai Chernyshevsky
Everybody's for democracy in principle. It's only in practice that the thing gives rise to stiff objections.
Meg Greenfield
