Quotes About Citizens

We grant that American citizens who have millions of dollars have a right to use them to poison the public mind; but surely we don't have to grant the right of foreigners to come in and intrigue against us.

Sometimes citizens can do as much harm to their commonwealth by violating custom and tradition as by breaking laws.

America, then, is only as good as the citizens of any era who choose to preserve and to nourish it for one more generation. Republics are so often lost not over centuries but within a single decade.3

the central problem with global elites remains a sort of retrograde tribalism. For all the grand talk of being citizens of the world, they really owe their limited allegiances only to like kind—westernized elites with proper credentials—or rather, to the systems and fonts of their wealth and success. They are like the royal families of Europe before World War I, incestuously related and essentially more akin to each other than to their constituents.

Equality, citizens, is not the whole of society on a level, a society of tall blades of grass and small oaks, or a number of entangled jealousies. It is, legally speaking, every aptitude having the same opportunity for a career; politically all consciences having the same right. Equality has an organ, gratuitous and compulsory education. We must begin with the right to the alphabet.

The Romantic state could pride itself on being the emanation of one Volk and its primordial consciousness; the liberal state has to get by with a good deal less magic. The Romantic state could boldly identify itself with a people's Will; liberal states must content themselves with a general willingness. The romantic state rallies its citizens with a stirring cry: "One people!" The liberal state's true anthem is: "We can work it out.

Un des inconvénients les moins observés du suffrage universel, c'est de contraindre des citoyens en putréfaction à sortir de leurs sépulcres pour élire ou pour être élus. Le Président de la République est probablement une charogne. "Quatre ans de captivité à Cochons-sur-Marne

Politics—good politics—is public service. There is no life or occupation in which a man can find a greater opportunity to serve his community or his country. —HARRY TRUMAN

Welcome to the American sector! Feast your eyes on glorious Pluto, her wild frontier, her high standard of living, her rugged, hardworking citizens, her purple mountains majesty! Ride the mighty buffalo! Marvel at the bustling industry of the great cities of Jizo and Ascalaphus! Climb the peaks of Mt. Orcus and Mt. Chernobog!

We, as citizens of a supposedly free country, should not permit our government to restrict any information that protects criminal activity under the guise of National Security.

Il complottismo è un campo elettivo per queste agenzie. Esse offrono a buon mercato un prodotto allettante: spiegazioni dei fatti che liberano dall'onere di pensare e che al tempo stesso danno la gratificante sensazione di essere parte di un ristretto nucleo di persone che hanno davvero capito. [...] L'interpretazione critica è per i cittadini, il complottismo è per i sudditi.

Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated

Com a mídia-político, os cidadãos são infantilizados, já não se engajam na vida pública, são alienados, manipulados por gadgets e imagens, a democracia é "desnaturada" e "pervertida".

Governments must be conformable to the nature of the governed; governments are even a result of that nature.

Dans un pays civilisé, une guerre civile éclaterait, affirmait à un certain moment le héros de la pièce, mais chez nous il n'y a pas de citoyens, il s'agira donc d'une guerre entre laquais. Ce n'est pas pire qu'une guerre civile, mais c'est un peu plus répugnant, plus misérable. " Nikolai Brandeis

To menace the freedom of thought, religion, and personal safety of other citizens is not long permitted by a nation of free men, for freedom is their dearest possession, dearer even than life itself.

After the signing of the Constitution, Benjamin Franklin was asked by a woman on the street, "What have you given us, sir?" Franklin Responded, "A Republic, if you can keep it." A critical moment in history has come; our Republic is in jeopardy. Can we keep it? If the answer to that question, as I fear, is "no," then we have no one to blame but ourselves.

But are we even capable of maintaining a Republic anymore? Are there enough citizens willing to do the hard work that self-rule requires, or have we become a people who would rather be cared for, fed, clothed, housed, and told what's best for us by a parentlike state? Unfortunately, the evidence suggests the latter.

It's frequently said that there is 'no reason' for such 'military-style weapons' as the Bushmaster to be available to citizens. But isn't that a lot like saying there is no reason why any civilian should drive a military-style car like the Hummer?

And so this government of the United States was brilliantly designed to keep that weakness of human nature in check, but it required the people to participate daily, to be vigilant, and they have not. It demanded that they behave as though their government was their servant, but they have not. In their silence the people of the United States have spoken. While they slept the servant has become their master.

The way things are supposed to work is that we're supposed to know virtually everything about what they [the government] do: that's why they're called public servants. They're supposed to know virtually nothing about what we do: that's why we're called private individuals.

Democracy requires accountability and consent of the governed, which is only possible if citizens know what is being done in their name.

the presumption is that the government, with rare exception, will not know anything that law-abiding citizens are doing. That is why we are called private individuals, functioning in our private capacity. Transparency is for those who carry out public duties and exercise public power. Privacy is for everyone else.

A prime justification for surveillance—that it's for the benefit of the population—relies on projecting a view of the world that divides citizens into categories of good people and bad people. In that view, the authorities use their surveillance powers only against bad people, those who are "doing something wrong," and only they have anything to fear from the invasion of their privacy.