Quotes About Citizenship

You don't pay taxes–they take taxes.

You don't pay taxes-they take taxes.

If people are engaged, eventually the political system responds, despite the money, despite the lobbyists, it still responds. ~ President Obama

Democratic ideas cannot exist without the public spheres that make them possible.

It is the flag just as much of the man who was naturalized yesterday as of the men whose people have been here many generations.

True Americanism is opposed utterly to any political divisions resting on race and religion.

Let us have done with British-Americans and Irish-Americans and German-Americans, and so on, and all be Americans…. If a man is going to be an American at all let him be so without any qualifying adjectives; and if he is going to be something else, let him drop the word American from his personal description.

I have heard something said about allegiance to the South. I know no South, no North, no East, no West, to which I owe any allegiance…. The Union, sir, is my country.

How does it become a man to behave toward this American government today? I answer that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it.

How does it become a man to behave towards the American government today? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it.

A sound American is simply one who has put out of his mind all doubts and questionings, and who accepts instantly, and as incontrovertible gospel, the whole body of official doctrine of his day, whatever it may be and no matter how often it may change. The instant he challenges it, no matter how timorously and academically, he ceases by that much to be a loyal and creditable citizen of the republic.

No man who is not willing to bear arms and to fight for his rights can give a good reason why he should be entitled to the privilege of living in a free community.

Napoleon is great because he rose superior to the Revolution, suppressed its abuses, preserved all that was good in it—equality of citizenship and freedom of speech and of the press—and only for that reason did he obtain power.

Our nation was founded on the principals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

We are on the cusp of this time where I can say, "I speak as a citizen of the world" without others saying, "God, what a nut."

I accept now with equanimity the question so constantly addressed to me, 'Are you an American' and merely return the accurate answer, 'Yes, I am a Canadian.'

They say there are about 12 million illegal immigrants in this country. But if you ask a native American, that number is more like 300 million.

Also there was considerable distrust of planning in any form. Planning was something the government was going to do to you. The way people in democracies think of the government as something different from themselves is a real handicap. And, of course, sometimes the government confirms their opinion, unfortunately.

Of what use are all the codes in the world, if by means of confidential reports, if for trifling reasons, if through anonymous traitors any honest citizen may be exiled or banished without a hearing, without a trial?

We The People' is public domain, any American can use that.

The absolute pacifist is a bad citizen; times come when force must be used to uphold right, justice and ideals.

Society during the last hundred years has been alternately perplexed and encouraged respecting the two great questions: how shall the criminal and pauper be disposed of in order to reduce crime and reform the criminal on the one hand and, on the other, to diminish pauperism and restore the pauper to useful citizenship?

Life in the mid-21st century is going to be about living locally. Be prepared to be good neighbors. Be prepared to find vocations that make you useful to your neighbors and to your fellow citizens.

We have to start thinking of ourselves as citizens of the Internet, not just passive users. I don't see how we can bring about change in our digital lives if we don't take responsibility.