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Democracy is an extraordinary adventure. It's difficult, full of daring and risk and danger. But it's the greatest gift we have.

But democracy isn't a state of perfection. It has to be improved, and that means constant vigilance.

The experience of democracy is like the experience of life itself-always changing, infinite in its variety, sometimes turbulent and all the more valuable for having been tested by adversity.

Democracy is still a radical idea in a world where we often confuse images with realities, words with actions.

Democracy is based upon the conviction that there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people.

Democracy, obviously, is something we don't want to give up, but it does create chaos. It means the guy next door can do what he wants, and it creates a collision of thinking. In cities, that means people build whatever they want.

Of course democracy is good, but it is a process, not a prescription.

I think it's obvious that democracy is something that is contagious, and it always has been.

Our democracy is not a product but a continual process. It is preserved not by monuments but deeds. Sometimes it needs refining; sometimes it needs amending; sometimes it needs defending. Always, it needs improving.

Democracy is but an experiment in the long history of the world.