WIST Quotations

Roosevelt, Theodore -- Essay (1918-04-06), “Citizens or Subjects?” Kansas City Star

Dave — Thu, 06 Nov 2025 17:21:59 +0000

In a self-governing country the people are called citizens. Under a despotism or autocracy the people are called subjects. This is because in a free country the people are themselves sovereign, while in a despotic country the people are under a sovereign. In the United States the people are all citizens, including its President. The rest of them are fellow citizens of the President. In Germany the people are all subjects of the Kaiser. They are not his fellow citizens, they are his subjects.
This is the essential difference between the United States and Germany, but the difference would vanish if we now submitted to the foolish or traitorous persons who endeavor to make it a crime to tell the truth about the Administration when the Administration is guilty of incompetence or other shortcomings. Such an endeavor is itself a crime against the nation. Those who take such an attitude are guilty of moral treason of a kind both abject and dangerous.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer; US President (1901–09)
Essay (1918-04-06), “Citizens or Subjects?” Kansas City Star

Regarding a bill which had just passed the Senate Judiciary Committee which would fine and imprison any one who used "contemptuous or slurring language about the President."

This passage was added to later editions of his essay, "Lincoln and Free Speech,", as printed in The Works of Theodore Roosevelt, vol. 21, The Great Adventure, ch. 7 (1925). It does not appear in the original version of the essay or book.

Roosevelt, Franklin Delano -- Speech (1938-07-08), Northwest Territory Sesquicentennial, Muskingum Park, Marietta, Ohio

Dave — Fri, 02 Oct 2015 14:53:33 +0000

Let us not be afraid to help each other — let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and Senators and Congressmen and Government officials but the voters of this country.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman; US President (1933–45)
Speech (1938-07-08), Northwest Territory Sesquicentennial, Muskingum Park, Marietta, Ohio

Adams, John -- Letter (1785-04-08) to Dr. Price

Dave — Wed, 13 May 2015 12:12:33 +0000

I am happy to find myself perfectly agreed with you, that we should begin by setting conscience free. When all men of all religions consistent with morals and property, shall enjoy equal liberty, property, or rather security of property, and an equal chance for honor and power, and when government shall be considered as having in it nothing more mysterious or divine than other arts or sciences, we may expect that improvements will be made in the human character and the state of society.

John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founder, statesman; US President (1797–1801)
Letter (1785-04-08) to Dr. Price

This quote is almost always given in the following, paraphrased form:

We should begin by setting conscience free. When all men of all religions shall enjoy equal liberty, property, and an equal chance for honors and power we may expect that improvements will be made in the human character and the state of society.

This simplifies his statement for religious tolerance (indeed, full social integration of all religions "consistent with morals and property"), but omits his stance (which he speaks to in the rest of the letter) on government properly being a secular organization, rather than sovereign rulers being being imbued with divine right from God.

Eisenhower, Dwight David -- Speech (1953-04-16), “The Chance for Peace,” American Society of Newspaper Editors, Hotel Statler, New York City

Dave — Thu, 05 Feb 2015 17:52:00 +0000

The way chosen by the United States was plainly marked by a few clear precepts, which govern its conduct in world affairs.
First: No people on earth can be held, as a people, to be enemy, for all humanity shares the common hunger for peace and fellowship and justice.
Second: No nation’s security and well-being can be lastingly achieved in isolation but only in effective cooperation with fellow-nations.
Third: Any nation’s right to form of government and an economic system of its own choosing is inalienable.
Fourth: Any nation’s attempt to dictate to other nations their form of government is indefensible.
And fifth: A nation’s hope of lasting peace cannot be firmly based upon any race in armaments but rather upon just relations and honest understanding with all other nations.
In the light of these principles the citizens of the United States defined the way they proposed to follow, through the aftermath of war, toward true peace.

Dwight David Eisenhower (1890–1969) American general, US President (1953–61)
Speech (1953-04-16), “The Chance for Peace,” American Society of Newspaper Editors, Hotel Statler, New York City

Describing US foreign policy post-World War 2, in contrast with the USSR. Also known as the "Cross of Iron" speech, it was delivered shortly into his presidency and just after Stalin's death.

Roosevelt, Theodore -- Speech (1912-09-14), San Francisco

Dave — Mon, 10 Nov 2014 13:28:04 +0000

So long as governmental power existed exclusively for the king and not at all for the people, then the history of liberty was a history of the limitation of governmental power. But now the governmental power rests in the people, and the kings who enjoy privilege are the kings of the financial and industrial world; and what they clamor for is the limitation of governmental power, and what the people sorely need is the extension of governmental power.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer; US President (1901–09)
Speech (1912-09-14), San Francisco

Burgh, James -- Political Disquisitions, Book 1 “Of Government, briefly” (1774)

Dave — Thu, 06 Nov 2014 12:51:58 +0000

All lawful authority, legislative, and executive, originates from the people. Power in the people is like light in the sun: native, original, inherent, and unlimited by anything human. In governors it may be compared to the reflected light of the moon, for it is only borrowed, delegated, and limited by the intention of the people; whose it is, and to whom governors are to consider themselves as responsible, while the people are answerable only to God; — themselves being the losers, if they pursue a false scheme of politics.

James Burgh (1714–1775) British politician and writer
Political Disquisitions, Book 1 “Of Government, briefly” (1774)

Ingersoll, Robert Green -- Lecture (1873-12) “Individuality,” Chicago Free Religious Society

Dave — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 12:16:01 +0000

The Declaration of Independence announces the sublime truth, that all power comes from the people. This was a denial, and the first denial of a nation, of the infamous dogma that God confers the right upon one man to govern others. It was the first grand assertion of the dignity of the human race. It declared the governed to be the source of power, and in fact denied the authority of any and all gods. Through the ages of slavery — through the weary centuries of the lash and chain, God was the acknowledged ruler of the world. To enthrone man, was to dethrone God.
To Paine, Jefferson, and Franklin, are we indebted, more than to all others, for a human government, and for a Constitution in which no God is recognized superior to the legally expressed will of the people.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833–1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Lecture (1873-12) “Individuality,” Chicago Free Religious Society

Full title "Arraignment of the Church and a Plea for Individuality." Collected in The Gods and Other Lectures (1876)

Kennedy, John F. -- Speech, UN General Assembly (25 Sep 1961)

Dave — Mon, 08 Sep 2014 12:22:47 +0000

Political sovereignty is but a mockery without the means of meeting poverty and illiteracy and disease. Self-determination is but a slogan if the future holds no hope.

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) American politician, author, journalist, US President (1961–63)
Speech, UN General Assembly (25 Sep 1961)

Adams, John -- “A Proclamation by the General Court of Massachusetts” (1776-01-19)

Dave — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 15:20:03 +0000

As the Happiness of the People is the sole End of Government, So the Consent of the People is the only Foundation of it, in Reason, Morality, and the natural Fitness of things: and therefore every Act of Government, every Exercise of Sovereignty, against, or without, the Consent of the People, is Injustice, Usurpation, and Tyranny.

John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founder, statesman; US President (1797–1801)
“A Proclamation by the General Court of Massachusetts” (1776-01-19)

The document was begun by the House on 1775-12-18 to outline reasons why judicial officers appointed by the Council ought to be accepted by counties (more background here). The proclamation was approved by the House on 1776-01-23, and printed in the Boston Gazette on 1776-02-12.

In Adams' manuscript of the document it reads, "As the Happiness of the People alone."

Mill, John Stuart -- On Liberty, ch. 1 “Introductory” (1859)

Dave — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 22:55:27 +0000

The only part of the conduct of any one, for which he is amenable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence, is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.

John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) English philosopher and economist
On Liberty, ch. 1 “Introductory” (1859)

Lincoln, Abraham -- Speech (1861-03-04), Inaugural Address, Washington, D. C.

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects it does of necessity fly to anarchy or to despotism.

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861–65)
Speech (1861-03-04), Inaugural Address, Washington, D. C.