Quotes About Citizenship

Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.

Next, he points out that good men are better to live among than bad men, and therefore he cannot be so foolish as to corrupt his fellow-citizens intentionally; but if unintentionally, then Meletus should instruct him, not prosecute him.

Contemplation enlarges not only the objects of our thoughts, but also the objects of our actions and our affections: it makes us citizens of the universe, not only of one walled city at war will all the rest. In this citizenship of the universe consists man's true freedom, and his liberation from the thraldom of narrow hopes and fears.

A government is usually called 'democratic' if a fairly large percentage of the population has a share of political power. The most extreme Greek democracies excluded women and slaves, and America considered itself a democracy before women had the vote. Clearly an oligarchy approaches more nearly to a democracy as the percentage possessed of political power increases. The characteristic features of oligarchy only appear when this percentage is rather small.

Democracy, as a form of government, has the advantage of making everybody a participant in war... This is one of the strongest reasons for expecting democracy to survive.

Republicans and Democrats are obsessed with making sure that illegal aliens are granted citizenship. The American people are not. They're concerned about jobs, the economy, debt. They're concerned about a plundering country. They're concerned about a decaying, dying country.

It is repugnant to an American to inform upon his fellow citizens.

To become an American citizen, we require people to read, write and speak in English. That is to help them to assimilate in our melting pot, truly to become Americans. We mock that when the cherished right to vote does not involve English any more.

In 1914, there were two countries in the world that required you to have a passport if you wanted to enter - Czarist Russia and the Ottomans. Anywhere else, you could come and go as you pleased.

The reality is for 50 years in this country, federal law has required people that are illegal - or that are immigrants - or that are legal immigrants to this country to carry documentation to that effect. And that has been the law for 50 years.

I believe that the president should be excused from some of the burdens of ordinary citizenship while serving in office. This is not something I necessarily thought in the 1980s or 1990s. Like many Americans at that time, I believed that the president should be required to shoulder the same obligations that we all carry.

Before I could become a military officer or a Member of Congress, I was required to do one thing: Take an oath to the Constitution.

Although an increasing proportion of the Hispanic population is foreign-born - about half of adults in this group - English proficiency is and should remain a requirement for citizenship.

Education is important even beyond the bounds of the opportunities it gives to the individual; it is a crucial and basic requirement for ensuring effective democracy and human rights.

A functioning, robust democracy requires a healthy educated, participatory followership, and an educated, morally grounded leadership.

Creating a nation requires the will of the people!

A robust democracy requires active participation.

Democracy, of course, requires strong demands from the public.

I reserve the right to be a participating citizen and artist.

The U.S. immigration system is the most generous in the world, providing each year more green cards for legal permanent residence with a clear path to full citizenship than all the rest of the nations of the world combined.

One day when I was 16, I rode my bike to the nearby DMV office to get my driver's permit. Some of my friends already had their licenses, so I figured it was time. But when I handed the clerk my green card as proof of U.S. residency, she flipped it around, examining it. 'This is fake,' she whispered. 'Don't come back here again.'

Becoming a resident of a state may confer the right to get a driver's license, but it does not and should not confer citizenship.

I am a permanent legal resident of this country, I was born in Korea; my parents came to America for a better life for our family, I've lived here nearly my whole life, and even though I consider myself through and through Korean and American, I guess when it comes down to it, anyone can take away my identity. It doesn't belong to me.

It is simply a fact that the birth rate of our illegal immigrants exceeds that of our legal residents.