Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918) United States Baptist theologian
Source: Christianity and the Social Crisis (1907), Ch.4 Why Has Christianity Never Undertaken the Work of Social Reconstruction?, p. 150
“It has been observed that a pure democracy if it were practicable would be the most perfect government. Experience has proved that no position is more false than this.”
Speech in New York, urging ratification of the U.S. Constitution (21 June 1788)
Context: It has been observed that a pure democracy if it were practicable would be the most perfect government. Experience has proved that no position is more false than this. The ancient democracies in which the people themselves deliberated never possessed one good feature of government. Their very character was tyranny; their figure deformity.
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Alexander Hamilton106
Founding Father of the United States 1757–1804Related quotes
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Source: 1880s, "The Study of Administration," 1887, p. 206;
John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd President of the United States
XVIII, p. 483. Usually misquoted as "Democracy…while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy".
1810s, Letters to John Taylor (1814)
Benjamin R. Barber (1939–2017) US political scientist
Source: Strong democracy: Participatory politics for a new age (2003), p. 3
“Our democracy has been around far longer than European democracy.”
Hillary Clinton (1947) American politician, senator, Secretary of State, First Lady
European Parliament, Brussels, March 6, 2009. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/19718.html <br class="br">Secretary of State (2009–2013)
“In practice, the enemy has been making much more propaganda for us than we have ourselves.”
Ho Chi Minh (1890–1969) Vietnamese communist leader and first president of Vietnam
Instructions Given at the Conference (Fall 1950)
1950's
Reza Pahlavi (1960) Last crown prince of the former Imperial State of Iran
As quoted in Iran’s Royal Opposition http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/02/10/iran-s-royal-opposition.html, The Daily Beast, Feb 10, 2010. <br class="br">Interviews, 2010
Charles Lindbergh (1902–1974) American aviator, author, inventor, explorer, and social activist
Journal entry (26 August 1938); later published in The Wartime Journals (1970)
Context: The readiness to blame a dead pilot for an accident is nauseating, but it has been the tendency ever since I can remember. What pilot has not been in positions where he was in danger and where perfect judgment would have advised against going? But when a man is caught in such a position he is judged only by his error and seldom given credit for the times he has extricated himself from worse situations. Worst of all, blame is heaped upon him by other pilots, all of whom have been in parallel situations themselves, but without being caught in them. If one took no chances, one would not fly at all. Safety lies in the judgment of the chances one takes. That judgment, in turn, must rest upon one's outlook on life. Any coward can sit in his home and criticize a pilot for flying into a mountain in fog. But I would rather, by far, die on a mountainside than in bed. Why should we look for his errors when a brave man dies? Unless we can learn from his experience, there is no need to look for weakness. Rather, we should admire the courage and spirit in his life. What kind of man would live where there is no daring? And is life so dear that we should blame men for dying in adventure? Is there a better way to die?