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Citizens Quotes

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Citizens Quotes

“I fear you do not fully comprehend the danger of abridging the liberties of the people. Nothing but the sternest necessity can ever justify it. A government had better go to the extreme of toleration, than to do aught that could be construed into an interference with, or to jeopardize in any degree, the common rights of its citizens.”

People Government Common Liberty Rights Danger Citizens Degrees Extremes Justify Interference Toleration Jeopardize

Book:State papers, 1861-1865

Source: State papers, 1861-1865

“If mind is common to us, then also the reason, whereby we are reasoning beings, is common. If this be so, then also the reason which enjoins what is to be done or left undone is common. If this be so, law also is common; if this be so, we are citizens; if this be so, we are partakers in one constitution; if this be so, the Universe is a kind of Commonwealth.”

Ifs Mind Kind Reason Done Law Universe Left Common Citizens Constitution Reasoning Undone Commonwealth

Author:Marcus Aurelius

“Accounts of outrages committed by mobs form the every-day news of the times. They have pervaded the country from New England to Louisiana, they are neither peculiar to the eternal snows of the former nor the burning suns of the latter; they are not the creature of climate, neither are they confined to the slaveholding or the non-slaveholding States. Alike they spring up among the pleasure-hunting masters of Southern slaves, and the order-loving citizens of the land of steady habits. Whatever then their cause may be, it is common to the whole country.”

Source: Lincoln: Political Writings and Speeches

“Democracy does not require perfect equality, but it does require that citizens share a common life. What matters is that people of different backgrounds and social positions encounter one another, and bump up against one another, in the course of ordinary life.”

“When each citizen submits himself to the authority of law he does not thereby decrease his independence or freedom, but rather increases it. By recognizing that he is a part of a larger body which is banded together for a common purpose, he becomes more than an individual, he rises to a new dignity of citizenship. Instead of finding himself restricted and confined by rendering obedience to public law, he finds himself protected and defended and in the exercise of increased and increasing rights.”

“Democracy is a difficult art of government, demanding of its citizens high ratios of courage and literacy, and at the moment we lack both the necessary habits of mind and a sphere of common reference.”

Mind Art Moments Government Difficult Common Democracy Habit Citizens Spheres Literacy Ratios Habits Of Mind

Book:Waiting for the Barbarians

Source: Waiting for the Barbarians

“From the time of the Revolutionary War, when citizens stood forward to defend their liberties against the depredations of tyranny. All the way through Civil War, through the great World Wars, this nation has been defended by the tradition of common ordinary folks who come from behind the plow, come from the store-clerking, come from the classrooms, and so forth to get on the battlefields - ordinary citizens turned into heroes in defense of their liberty, because that's the potential of freedom.”

“We must speak first about the division of land and about those who cultivate it: who should they be and what kind of person? We do not agree with those who have said that property should be communally owned, but we do believe that there should be a friendly arrangement for its common use, and that none of the citizens should be without means of support.”

Should Firsts Believe Kind Mean Persons Said Use Wisdom Politics Speak Common Support Economy Land Citizens Agree Property Liberalism Friendly Division Arrangements

Author:Aristotle

“Of the land which the Romans gained by conquest from their neighbours, part they sold publicly, and turned the remainder into common; this common land they assigned to such of the citizens as were poor and indigent, for which they were to pay only a small acknowledgment into the public treasury. But when the wealthy men began to offer larger rents, and drive the poorer people out, it was enacted by law that no person whatever should enjoy more than five hundred acres of ground.”

Source: Plutarch's Lives: The Translation Called Dryden's

“Every lynching deprives its victim of his life without due process of law, and denies him an equal protection of the law. The States are charged with punishing all such invasions as the common rights of the citizens, but some of them have failed in their effort to do so, and others have not honestly tried. Meanwhile, lynchings continue, and though they do not increase in number, they show some tendency to increase in savagery.”

“In a composite Nation like ours, made up of almost every variety of the human family, there should be, as before the Law, no rich, no poor, no high, no low, no black, no white, but one country, one citizenship equal rights and a common destiny for all. A government that cannot or does not protect the humblest citizen in his right to life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness, should be reformed or overthrown, without delay.”

“I have heard my fill of hurtful words. I think it's especially egregious when citizens like me, who point out abuses in their country, are referred to as 'do-gooders.' This is how a phrase that can be used to stop an argument dead becomes part of common usage.”

Thinking Country Used Common Heard Citizens Argument Abuse Like Me Phrases Hurtful Usage

Author:Gunter Grass

“What you do is as important as anything government does. I ask you to seek a common good beyond your comfort; to defend needed reforms against easy attacks; to serve your nation, beginning with your neighbor. I ask you to be citizens: citizens, not spectators; citizens, not subjects; responsible citizens, building communities of service and a nation of character.”

Doe Important Character Government Asks Nations Easy Community Common Subjects Building Needed Citizens Comfort Responsible Neighbor Reform Spectators Common Good Building Community

Author:George W. Bush

“One citizen differs from another, but the salvation of the community is the common business of them all. This community is the constitution; the virtue of the citizen must therefore be relative to the constitution of which he is a member.”

Community Common Virtue Citizens Members Constitution Salvation Relative

Book:Politics

Source: Politics

“When the citizens at large administer the state for the common interest, the government is called by the generic name - a constitution.”

States Government Names Interest Common Citizens Constitution Generic Common Interests Generic Name

Book:The Essential Aristotle

Source: The Essential Aristotle

“Since the whole city has one end, it is manifest that education should be one and the same for all, and that it should be public, and not private - not as at present, when every one looks after his own children separately, and gives them separate instruction of the sort which he thinks best; the training in things which are of common interest should be the same for all. Neither must we suppose that any one of the citizens belongs to himself, for they all belong to the state, and are each of them a part of the state, and the care of each part is inseparable from the care of the whole.”

Thinking Giving Should Looks Children Ends States Whole Care Interest Common Cities Education Citizens Training Manifest Instruction Inseparable Common Interests

Book:Aristotle

Source: Aristotle

“The true forms of government, therefore, are those in which the one, or the few, or the many, govern with a view to the common interest; but governments which rule with a view to the private interest, whether of the one or of the few, or of the many, are perversions. For the members of a state, if they are truly citizens, ought to participate in its advantages.”

Ifs States Government Form Interest Views Common Ought Citizens Members Advantage Forms Of Government Perversion Common Interests

Book:Aristotle: The Politics and the Constitution of Athens

Source: Aristotle: The Politics and the Constitution of Athens

“Now what is just and right is to be interpreted in the sense of 'what is equal'; and that which is right in the sense of being equal is to be considered with reference to the advantage of the state, and the common good of the citizens. And a citizen is one who shares in governing and being governed. He differs under different forms of government, but in the best state he is one who is able and willing to be governed and to govern with a view to the life of virtue.”

Different States Government Able Form Law Justice Views Common Virtue Share Willing Citizens Equal Advantage Governing Forms Of Government Common Good Being Equal

Book:Politics

Source: Politics

“I would have government defend the life and property of all citizens equally; protect all willing exchange; suppress and penalize all fraud, all misrepresentation, all violence, all predatory practices; invoke a common justice under law; and keep the records incidental to these functions. Even this is a bigger assignment than governments, generally, have proven capable of. Let governments do these things and do them well. Leave all else to men in free and creative effort.”

“The proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and emolument unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages to which, in common with his fellow citizens, he has a natural right.”

Natural Religious Common Opinion Atheism Citizens Office Advantage Fellows Privilege Positive Atheism Unworthy Renounce Incapacity Depriving

Book:The writings of Thomas Jefferson

Source: The writings of Thomas Jefferson

“... a nation to be strong, must be united; to be united, must be equal in condition; to be equal in condition, must be similar inhabits and feeling; to be similar in habits and feeling, must be raised in national institutions as the children of a common family, and citizens of a common country.”

Children Country Feelings Strong Nations United Common Conditions Habit Citizens Equal Institutions Unity Raised Equality Assimilation

Author:Frances Wright

“The mere fact of leaving ultimate social control in the hands of the people has not guaranteed that men will be able to conduct their lives as free men. Those societies where men know they are free are often democracies, but sometimes they have strong chiefs and kings.they have, however, one common characteristic: they are all alike in making certain freedoms common to all citizens, and inalienable.”

Source: An Anthropologist at Work

“Today, now, it is time to move forward, a time to look for what is good in others, what is good in our country. It is time to see what we have in common, what we have to share as human beings and citizens.”

Humans Looks Country Today Moving Human Beings Common Share Citizens Moving Forward Our Country

Author:Clarence Thomas

“We need to seek wise leaders who will seek common ground among Americans instead of dividing us further for political gain. As citizens, we must embrace those who embrace ideas, thoughtfulness, civility and kindness to others no matter what their political beliefs.”

“What holds people together long enough to discover their power as citizens is their common inhabiting of a single place.”

People Long Enough Together Common Citizens

Book:Community and the Politics of Place

Source: Community and the Politics of Place

“The world would be a paradise of peace and justice if global citizens shared a common definition of love which would guide our thoughts and action.”

Ifs World Would Be Action Justice Common Citizens Definitions Guides Paradise Our Thoughts Global Citizen Peace And Justice Thoughts And Actions Definition Of Love

Author:Bell Hooks

“There is something that I have in common with every citizen of Russia, the love for our motherland.”

Common Citizens Russia Motherland

Author:Vladimir Putin

“Alabama citizens, like the vast majority of Americans, respect and value the meaning of decency, and appreciate public institutions that reflect the common values of our society.”

Values Common Citizens Respect Appreciate Institutions Majority Our Society Decency Alabama

Author:Mike Rogers

“The citizen of Oceania is not allowed to know anything of the tenets of the other two philosophies, but he is taught to execrate them as barbarous outrages upon morality and common sense. Actually, the three philosophies are barely distinguishable.”

Knows Two Philosophy Three Common Taught Citizens Morality Common Sense Outrage Oceania

Book:The Complete Works of George Orwell: Nineteen eighty-four

Source: The Complete Works of George Orwell: Nineteen eighty-four

“Passionate attachment to another nation produces a variety of evils... the illusion of common interests where no real common interests exist; adopting the enmities of the other; and participation in the quarrels and wars of the other without any justification. Still another evil is that such a passionate attachment gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens the facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country.”

“I want to say unequivocally that while I cherish every person who comes from anywhere, who comes here legally and seeks to pursue happiness, and I hope all of them decide to stay and become American citizens, but I want them to become American. And part of becoming American involved English. It is vital historically to assert and establish that English is the common language at the heart of our civilization.”

Want Heart Persons Language Common Becoming Citizens Involved Civilization Pursue Cherish American Citizens Common Language

Author:Newt Gingrich

“America is not a nation of separation. All our citizens are Americans. The common denominator is our language. Our language is English. The glue that binds generation after generation is both our Constitution and our English language.”

America Language Nations Common Generations Citizens Constitution Separation English Language Glue Common Denominator

Author:James Traficant

“Believing that war is contrary to the will of God and to common sense, and feeling that the way of peace is the way of love, I shall work for peace by using the way of love myself, by helping any group I am part of to use it, by helping the nation of which I am a citizen to use it, by helping the United Nations to use it, and by praying that the way of love be used all over the world.”

Source: Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and Work in Her Own Words

“Rather than fight the same tired battles that have dominated Washington for decades, it's time to try something new. Let's invest in our people without leaving them a mountain of debt. Let's meet our responsibility to the citizens who sent us here. Let's try common sense.”

People Trying Fighting Common Responsibility Citizens Battle Mountain Tired Leaving Debt Decades Common Sense Something New

Author:Barack Obama

“Democracy does not require perfect equality, but it does require that citizens share in a common life.”

Doe Perfect Common Democracy Share Citizens Different Backgrounds Common Life

Book:What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets

Source: What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets

“This simple truth is the essence of my message to Muslims throughout the world: know who you are, who you want to be, and start talking and working with whom you are not. Find common values and build with fellow citizens a society based on diversity and equality.”

Knows World Want Values Simple Common Talking Citizens Truth Is Diversity Messages Essence Fellows Who You Are Simple Truths

Author:Tariq Ramadan

“You see it even in our educational systems, where the market model becomes central. It's a matter of just gaining a skill or gaining access to a job to live in some vanilla suburb, as opposed to becoming a critical citizen concerned with public interest and common good.”

Matter Jobs Interest Common Becoming Citizens Skills Models Concerned Educational Critical Access Suburbs Common Good Educational System Public Interest Vanilla

Author:Cornel West

“God ordained and established civil government, but only to serve the common good. A civil government that oppresses its people and acts contrary to the people's interests deposes itself, ceases to be a legitimate government, and, therefore, citizens are no longer obligated by Scripture to obey it.”

People Government Interest Common Citizens Contrary Scripture Cease Common Good Legitimate Government

Author:Daniel L Dreisbach

“I abhor the word "consumer." Consumers, unlike citizens, have no implicit duties, obligations, or responsibilities to the common good. It's a degrading term. The use of it degrades the public discussion.”

Use Term Common Responsibility Duty Citizens Obligation Consumers Discussion Common Good Degrade Degrading Implicit

Author:James Howard Kunstler

“The Muslim contribution to the future of America is to not only speak out as Muslims, but to also speak out as citizens in the name of our common values. Our main contribution is to reconcile the American society with its own values, those that are not in contradiction to Islam. We have a duty of consistency.”

America Values Names Speak Common Duty Citizens Islam Contribution Contradiction Consistency Reconcile Speaks Out American Society Future Of America

Author:Tariq Ramadan

“Each generation, as it seeks to advance the common good, must ask anew: 'What are the requirements that governments may reasonably impose upon citizens, and how far do they extend? By appeal to what authority can moral dilemmas be resolved?'”

May Government Asks Common Moral Generations Citizens Authority Appeals Requirements Dilemma Common Good Moral Dilemma

Author:Pope Benedict XVI

“Citizens by birth or choice of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations.”

Country Choices Names Common Pride Birth Citizens Capacity Affection Discrimination Locals Patriotic Citizenship Farewell Address

Book:Declaration of Independence ... with the Names, Places of Residence, &c. of the Signers. Constitution of the United States ...: Also, Address of George Washington ... on Declining Being Considered a Candidate for Their Future Suffrages. September 17, 1796

Source: Declaration of Independence ... with the Names, Places of Residence, &c. of the Signers. Constitution of the United States ...: Also, Address of George Washington ... on Declining Being Considered a Candidate for Their Future Suffrages. September 17, 1796