Quotes About Citizens

That no government, so called, can reasonably be trusted, or reasonably be supposed to have honest purposes in view, any longer than it depends wholly upon voluntary support.

Not knowing who the particular individuals are, who call themselves "the government," the taxpayer does not know whom he pays his taxes to. All he knows is that a man comes to him, representing himself to be the agent of "the government"—that is, the agent of a secret band of robbers and murderers, who have taken to themselves the title of "the government," and have determined to kill everybody who refuses to give them whatever money they demand.

That no government, so called, can reasonably be trusted for a moment, or reasonably be supposed to have honest purposes in view, any longer than it depends wholly upon voluntary support.

Le fait est que le gouvernement, comme un bandit de grand chemin, dit à un individu: "La bourse ou la vie." Quantité de taxes, ou même la plupart, sont payées sous la contrainte d'une telle menace.

Authority, without any condition and reservation, belongs to the nation.

All the nations involved in the war used what we might call propaganda to change their citizens' moods. What is the line between art and propaganda? Art is, after all, supposed to affect our mood, is supposed to win us over to some understanding. And "propaganda" is often just what we call another nation's pride of country.

Government, is the last analysis, is organized opinion. Where there is little or no public opinion, there is likely to be bad government.

WITH COMMUNISM NO LONGER VIABLE, THE DEFAULT RALLYING CRY for an autocratic Russian leader is nationalism. Putin, with his staged military parades and frequent invocation of past heroics, sounds that trumpet repeatedly. He wants citizens to believe that only he can restore his country to its rightful position in world affairs. If that means playing a little rough, so be it

Instead of citizens giving power to the state in exchange for the protection of their rights, power begins with the leader, and the people have no rights. Under Fascism, the mission of citizens is to serve; the government's job is to rule.

The 2008 financial crisis reinforced this trend by causing many citizens to doubt the competence of their leaders and to question the fairness of systems that seem to protect the wealthy at the expense of everyone else.

Modern dictators tend to weary of their citizens, which is why they create royal guards and other elite security units to ensure their personal safety. A fascist, however, expects the crowd to have his back. Where kings try settle people down, fascists stir them up so that when the fighting begins their foot soldiers have the will and fighting power to strike first.

Today, nearly two-thirds of the citizens in EU countries believe immigration has a harmful impact on their societies. Cosmopolitanism, once considered a virtue, is less in vogue than nativism.

We should never separate our values from the ways in which we encourage our children to become effective family members, friends, collaborators, and citizens.

The business of the government is the business of the people.

But, in a case like this, it'll be nice to have twelve of our good and faithful citizens in the hot seat.

A stable society is built on notions of fairness and justice and it's left to judges like you and me to make sure all citizens are protected from the corrupt, the violent, and the forces of evil.

Beware: the Government Is Armed and Dangerous.

Williams created the first government in the world which broke church and state apart. Because those who had linked the two believed that political authority came from God, this led to a fission whose fallout included the new and equally explosive concept that the state derives its authority from and remains subject to its citizens.

Lippmann later called society "too big, too complex" for the average person to comprehend, since most citizens were "mentally children or barbarians. . . . Self-determination [is] only one of the many interests of a human personality." Lippmann urged that self-rule be subordinated to "order," "rights," and "prosperity.

This answer involves not simply academic pursuits; it affects how a society governs itself, its structure, how its citizens live. If a society does set Goethe's "Word . . . supremely high," if it believes that it knows the truth and that it need not question its beliefs, then that society is more likely to enforce rigid decrees, and less likely to change. If it leaves room for doubt about the truth, it is more likely to be free and

The education that we have so far succeeded in giving to the bulk of our citizens has produced a generation of mental slatterns.

Out of the public schools comes the greatness of the nation.

We must train and classify the whole of our male citizens, and make military instruction a regular part of collegiate education.

The devotion of democracy to education is a familiar fact. . . . [A] government resting upon popular suffrage cannot be successful unless those who elect . . . their governors are educated.