Quotations about:
    citizen


Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.


All citizens do have a measure of control, at least in democracies where their votes are counted, of how they belong to their nations. Perhaps they will have more confidence in unconventional choices if they see that each nation’s founders were disobedient and unpredictable, men and women of imagination and ambition. The steel of every national monument was once molten.

Timothy Snyder (b. 1969) American historian, author
The Red Prince, “Orange: European Revolutions” (2008)
    (Source)
 
Added on 8-Sep-21 | Last updated 8-Sep-21
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Snyder, Timothy

It is a trite yet urgently true observation that if America is to remain a first-class nation, it cannot have second-class citizens.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
“The Negro and the American Dream,” speech, North Carolina NAACP, Charlotte (1960-09-25)
    (Source)

King used this line in several of his speeches at the time.
 
Added on 26-Jul-19 | Last updated 4-Jul-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by King, Martin Luther

For politics ought to be the part-time profession of every citizen who would protect the rights and privileges of free people and who would preserve what is good and fruitful in our national heritage. Politics must be the concern of every citizen who wants to see our national well-being increased and our international leadership strengthened. In that combined sense, politics is the noblest of professions. In the ranks of that kind of politics, every American should be enrolled.

Eisenhower - politics part-time profession - wist_info quote

Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)
Speech, Republican Lincoln Day Dinners (28 Jan 1954)
    (Source)

Often paraphrased: "Politics ought to be the part-time profession of every citizen who would protect the rights and privileges of free men."

The speech was filmed for the Republican National Committee and distributed to state and local committees to be shown at the Lincoln Day dinners.
 
Added on 17-May-16 | Last updated 3-Nov-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Eisenhower, Dwight David

But freedom isn’t free. It shouldn’t be a bragging point that, “Oh, I don’t get involved in politics,” as if that makes someone cleaner. No, that makes you derelict of duty in a republic. Liars and panderers in government would have a much harder time of it if so many people didn’t insist on their right to remain ignorant and blindly agreeable.

Maher - involved in politics - wist_info quote

William "Bill" Maher (b. 1956) American comedian, political commentator, critic, television host.
When You Ride Alone You Ride With Bin Laden (2002)
 
Added on 16-Feb-16 | Last updated 1-Jun-16
Link to this post | 1 comment
Topics: , , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Maher, Bill

Every honest and God-fearing man is a mighty factor in the future of the Republic. Educated men, business men, professional men, should be the last to shirk the responsibilities attaching to citizenship in a free government. They should be practical and helpful — mingling with the people — not selfish and exclusive. It is not necessary that every man should enter into politics, or adopt it as a profession, or seek political preferment, but it is the duty of every man to give personal attention to his political duties. They are as sacred and binding as any we have to perform.

William McKinley (1843-1901) US President (1897-1901)
Speech, Woodstock, Connecticut (4 July 1891)
    (Source)
 
Added on 25-Aug-15 | Last updated 25-Aug-15
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by McKinley, William

Our liberty cannot be taken away unless the people are themselves accomplices.

Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke (1678-1751) English politician, government official, political philosopher [Lord Bolingbroke]
A Dissertation upon Parties (1735)
 
Added on 15-Jul-15 | Last updated 15-Jul-15
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Bolingbroke, Henry (Lord)

America has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests, and teach us what it means to be citizens. Every child must be taught these principles. Every citizen must uphold them; and every immigrant, by embracing these ideals, makes our country more, not less, American.

George W. Bush (b. 1946) US President (2001-2009)
Inaugural Address (2001-01-20)
    (Source)
 
Added on 17-Dec-14 | Last updated 4-Jul-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Bush, George W.

Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.

E. B. White (1899-1985) American author, critic, humorist [Elwyn Brooks White]
“Notes and Comments,” New Yorker (3 Jul 1943)
    (Source)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 28-Sep-21
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by White, E. B.

It is manifestly possible to be a good citizen without possessing the goodness that constitutes a good man.

Aristotle (384-322 BC) Greek philosopher
Politics [Πολιτικά], Book 3, ch. 4 / 1276b.34 [tr. Rackham (1932)]
    (Source)

Alternate translations:

  • "It is quite possible that a citizen, though good as such, should not possess the excellence which characterizes a the good man." [tr. Bolland (1877)]
  • "The good citizen need not of necessity possess the virtue which makes a good man." [tr. Jowett (1885)]
  • "An excellent citizen does not possess that virtue which constitutes a good man." [tr. Ellis (1912)]
  • "That it is possible for a citizen to be excellent yet not possess the virtue in accordance with which he is an excellent man, therefore, is evident." [tr. Lord (1984)]
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 26-Feb-21
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Aristotle

What I have desired to do is to make the people of Boston realize that the most important office, and the one which all of us can and should fill, is that of private citizen. The duties of the office of private citizen cannot under a republican form of government be neglected without serious injury to the public.

Louis Brandeis (1856-1941) American lawyer, activist, Supreme Court Justice (1916-39)
Statement to a reporter, Boston Record (14 Apr 1903)

Quoted in Alpheus Thomas Mason, Brandeis: A Free Man's Life (1946).
    Commonly paraphrased:
  • "The most important office is that of the private citizen"
  • "The most important political office is that of the private citizen"
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 16-Jun-14
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: ,
More quotes by Brandeis, Louis