Democracies accept certain risks that tyrannies do not

You've got to keep taking certain risks, because my priority is in acting, it's not in movie stardom.

— Gary Sinise

Democracies don't go to war against each other, and by and large they don't sponsor terrorism. They're more likely to respect the environment and…

— William J. Clinton

What other, newer democracies find relatively easy - conducting an election, the counting of votes, the peaceful transition of power - seems to have…

— Barkha Dutt

It is a law of governance that democracies have to spend themselves dizzy. Citizens of democracies can, after all, tell their government to give…

— P. J. O'Rourke

Developing and newer democracies are much more susceptible to the tactics of populists and demagogues - they often do not have strong institutions, free…

— Kofi Annan

Our Declaration of Independence declares that democracies derive their power from the 'consent of the governed.' But this democracy will fail if only some…

— Jonathan Capehart

“the democracies that arose after the First World War (and the Second) often collapsed when a single party seized power in some combination of…

— Timothy Snyder

The idea that democracies could be vulnerable to demagogues is not a new notion.

— Bill Kristol

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

— Demosthenes

All democracies turn into dictatorships - but not by coup. The people give their democracy to a dictator, whether it's Julius Caesar or Napoleon…

— George Lucas

But even quashed rebellions leave us different. Because freedom may be a forbidden fruit in tyrannies, but once tasted, it is unforgettable.

— Anonymous

The most insupportable of tyrannies is that of inferiors.

— Napoleon Bonaparte

“sound historians know that most tyrannies have been possible because men moved too late”

— G.K. Chesterton

Tyrannies are overthrown by ideas. Armies are defeated by ideas. Nations, and Time itself, are overmatched by ideas.

— Henry Ward Beecher

“Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst; every other species of tyranny is limited to the world we…

— Thomas Paine