Quotes About Citizenship

So long as we govern our nation by the letter and spirit of the Bill of Rights, we can be sure that our nation will grow in strength and wisdom and freedom.

The least we can do is to respect the Constitution because that's the foundation on which our republic is built. If you give the Constitution the go-by, your republic will be under stress.

I ask that all Americans demonstrate in their personal and public lives... the high ethical standards that are essential to good character and to the continued success of our Nation.

Americans want students to get the best education possible. We want schools to prepare children to become good citizens and members of a prosperous American economy.

We're at a point in history where everyone needs to pay attention to politics. Too much is at stake for us to be apathetic.

We need our president to be successful because our futures are all tied to the success of America, which means America's government, which means, in essence, the president.

My start in politics was watching my parents go to the polls on election day. It reminded me that being an active, engaged citizen and voter is critical to the success of our democracy.

Argentini sono stranieri allo Stato Orientale del pari che gli uomini del Chili o dell'Inghilterra.

A nation cannot long remain strong when every man belonging to it is individually weak

This demonstrated to me that those who regard universal suffrage as a guarantee for good choices are under a complete illusion. Universal suffrage has other advantages, but not that one.

There is no more invariable rule in the history of society: the further electoral rights are extended, the greater is the need of extending them; for after each concession the strength of the democracy increases, and its demands increase with its strength.

The jury, which is the most energetic means to make the people rule, is also the most effective means to teach them to rule.

The European generally submits to a public officer because he represents a superior force; but to an American he represents a right. In America it may be said that no one renders obedience to man, but to justice and to law.

Town-meetings are to liberty what primary schools are to science; they bring it within the people's reach, they teach men how to use and how to enjoy it.

The man who in given cases consents to obey his fellows with servility, and who submits his activity and even his opinions to their control, can have no claim to rank as a free citizen.

Pour ma part, je ne saurais concevoir qu'une nation puisse vivre ni surtout prospérer sans une forte centralisation gouvernementale. Mais je pense que la centralisation administrative n'est propre qu'à énerver les peuples qui s'y soumettent, parce qu'elle tend sans cesse à diminuer parmi eux l'esprit de cité.

As the American participates in all that is done in his country, he thinks himself obliged to defend whatever may be censured; for it is not only his country which is attacked upon these occasions, but it is himself. The consequence is, that his national pride resorts to a thousand artifices, and to all the petty tricks of individual vanity.

BirleÅŸik Devletler'de vatandan bahsedildiÄŸini duydum. Halkta gerçek vatanseverlikle kar??laÅŸt?m, halk? yönetenler aras?nda ise bunu çoÄŸu zaman boÅŸuna arad?m.

In the United States, therefore, the mass of the institutions of the country is essentially republican; and in order permanently to destroy the laws which form the basis of the republic, it would be necessary to abolish all the laws at once.

Democracy "Democracy is the most fragile thing on earth, for what does it rest upon? You and me, and the fact that we agree to maintain it. The moment either of us says we will not, that's the end of it. It doesn't rest on anything but us; it doesn't rest on armed force, the moment it does it isn't democracy. It isn't something to kick around or experiment with." —Allen Drury, Stanford University (age 19)

The notion of human right builds on our shared humanity. These rights are not derived from the citizenship of any country, or the membership of any nation, but are presumed to be claims or entitlements of every human being. They differ, therefore, from constitutionally created rights guaranteed for specific people.

VOTE, n. The instrument and symbol of a freeman's power to make a fool of himself and a wreck of his country.

One must keep a close eye on the current definitions. To be unpatriotic would be terrible. To be patriotic in the wrong way could be fatal.

These manly sentiments, in private life, make the good citizen; in public life, the patriot and the hero.