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Citizens Quotes

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Citizens Quotes

“I believe that people have a right to decide their own destinies; people own themselves. I also believe that, in a democracy, government exists because (and only so long as) individual citizens give it a temporary license to exist, in exchange for a promise that it will behave itself. In a democracy, you own the government. It doesn't own you.”

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Author:Frank Zappa
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“Under the constitution, there was never meant to be a federal police force. Even an FBI limited only to investigations was not accepted until this century. Yet today, fueled by the federal government's misdirected war on drugs, radical environmentalism, and the aggressive behavior of the nanny state, we have witnessed the massive buildup of a virtual army of armed regulators prowling the States where they have no legal authority. The sacrifice of individual responsibility and the concept of local government by the majority of American citizens has permitted the army of bureaucrats to thrive.”

WarStatesGovernmentTodayIndividualForceResponsibilitySacrificeCenturyCitizensDrugAuthorityBehaviorConceptsConstitutionArmyPoliceMajorityAcceptedLocalsRadicalThriveMassiveMeant To BeAggressiveInvestigationFederal GovernmentFbiEnvironmentalismProhibitionBureaucratsWar On DrugsAmerican CitizensNanniesRegulatorsLocal GovernmentPolice ForceIndividual ResponsibilityProwling
Author:Ron Paul
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“In the first place, the government ought not to be invested with power to control the affections, any more than the consciences of citizens. A man has at least as good a right to choose his wife, as he has to choose his religion. His taste may not suit his neighbors; but so long as his deportment is correct, they have no right to interfere with his concerns.”

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Author:Lydia M. Child
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“A government which can protect and defend its citizens from wrong and outrage and does not is vicious. A government which would do it and cannot is weak; and where human life is insecure through either weakness or viciousness in the administration of law, there must be a lack of justice and where this is wanting, nothing can make up the deficiency.”

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Author:Frances Harper
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“But the wise know that foolish legislation is a rope of sand, which perishes in the twisting; that the State must follow, and notlead the character and progress of the citizen; the strongest usurper is quickly got rid of; and they only who build on Ideas, build for eternity; and that the form of government which prevails, is the expression of what cultivation exists in the population which permits it.”

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Book:The Annotated Emerson
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“The right of ordinary citizens to possess weapons is the most extraordinary, most controversial, and least understood of those liberties secured by Englishmen and bequeathed to their American colonists. It lies at the very heart of the relationship between the individual and his fellows, and between the individual and his government.”

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Book:To Keep and Bear Arms: The Origins of an Anglo-American Right
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“Government is best which is closest to the people. Yet that belief is betrayed by those State and local officials who engage in denying the right of citizens to vote. Their actions serve only to assure that their State governments and local governments shall be remote from the people, least representative of the people's will and least responsive to the people's wishes.”

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Author:Lyndon B. Johnson
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“Government force is derived from the sum of the physical force each citizen could exert which by one citizen himself would be ineffective, but when summed from the force of all the area's citizens indeed composes a power no citizen or group can withstand. That force is then rightly but justly to be used against those who violate the foundation pillars of freedom.”

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Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“One legislator accused me of having a 19th century attitude on law and order. That is a totally false charge. I have an 18th century attitude. That is when the Founding Fathers made it clear that the safety of law abiding citizens should be one of government's primary concerns.”

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Author:Jeffrey Gitomer
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“Only realistic flight schedules should be proposed, schedules that have a reasonable chance of being met. If in this way the government would not support them, then so be it. NASA owes it to the citizens from whom it asks support to be frank, honest, and informative.”

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Book:What Do You Care What Other People Think?
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“The 16th Amendment corroded the American concept of natural rights; ultimately reduced the American citizen to a status of subject, so much so that he is not aware of it; enhanced Executive power to the point of reducing Congress to innocuity; and enabled the central government to bribe the states, once independent units, into subservience. No kingship in the history of the world ever exercised more power than our Presidency, or had more of the people's wealth at its disposal.”

PeopleWorldStatesGovernmentPoliticalPoliticsNaturalWealthRightsSubjectsCitizensConceptsIndependentCongressExecutivesAmendmentsUnitsPresidencyWorld HistoryReducingAmerican CitizensBribeNatural RightsExecutive PowerCentral GovernmentSubservienceKingship
Book:Income Tax: Root of All Evil
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“What does it mean when Republicans and Democrats alike warn us about the 'pain' involved in cutting government spending - in their spending less of our money? For the average citizen, what pain is there in his keeping more of his money to invest it the way he wants? Taxes cost people. Tax cuts do not cost government.”

PeopleWayWantMeanDoeGovernmentPainPoliticalPoliticsCuttingCitizensInvolvedRepublicanCostTaxesDemocratAverageSpendingTax CutsGovernment SpendingSpending Less
Author:Theodore J. Forstmann
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“To suppose arms in the hands of citizens, to be used at individual discretion, except in private self-defense, or by partial orders of towns, counties or districts of a state, is to demolish every constitution, and lay the laws prostrate, so that liberty can be enjoyed by no man; it is a dissolution of the government. The fundamental law of the militia is, that it be created, directed and commanded by the laws, and ever for the support of the laws.”

MenSelfStatesHandsGovernmentLawUsedOrderIndividualLibertySupportArmsCitizensConstitutionTownsFundamentalsLaysDefenseEnjoyedAmendmentsCountyDiscretionSelf DefenseSecond AmendmentRight To Bear ArmsMilitiaBearing ArmsDissolutionFounding Fathers Gun2 AmendmentFounding Fathers Second AmendmentDemolishAmendment 1
Author:John Adams
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“Lastly, our ancestors established their system of government on morality and religious sentiment. Moral habits, they believed, cannot safely be trusted on any other foundation than religious principle, nor any government be secure which is not supported by moral habits.... Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens.”

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Book:The Great Orations and Senatorial Speech of Daniel Webster
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“The knowledge of the individual citizen is of less value than the knowledge of science. The former is the opinion of individuals. It is merely subjective and is excluded from policies. The latter is objective - defined by science and promulgated by expert spokesmen. This objective knowledge is viewed as a commodity which can be refined... and fed into a process, now called decision-making. This new mythology of governance by the manipulation of knowledge-stock inevitably erodes reliance on government by people.”

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Author:Ivan Illich
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“Governments and citizens blend together only in the imaginations of political theorists. Government is, and always will be, an alien power over private citizens. There is no magic in a ballot box that makes government any less coercive.”

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Book:Freedom in Chains: The Rise of the State and the Demise of the Citizen
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“Moyo, a Zambia-born economist, asserts that aid is not only ineffective-it's harmful. Her argument packs a strong punch because she was born and raised in Africa. Moyo believes aid money promotes the corruption of governments and the dependence of citizens, and advocates that an investment approach will do more to help reduce poverty than aid ever could.”

BelieveHelpingGovernmentStrongBornPovertyCitizensApproachArgumentInvestmentRaisedCorruptionAidsPacksDependenceEconomistBorn And RaisedZambia
Author:Amy Lockwood
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“The teaching of politics is that the Government, which was set for protection and comfort of all good citizens, becomes the principal obstruction and nuisance with which we have to contend... The cheat and bully and malefactor we meet everywhere is the Government.”

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Book:Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1820-1872 [1876] Ed
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“It's tax day and while many Americans are filing their taxes with a groan, taxpayers in the Badger State have reason to cheer. In Wisconsin, we have enacted more than $2 billion in tax cuts, giving our citizens much-needed relief, call us crazy Midwesterners but we think you know how to spend your money better than the government.”

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Author:Marco Rubio
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“The royalists of the economic order have conceded that political freedom was the business of the government, but they have maintained that economic slavery was nobody's business. They granted that the government could protect the citizen in his right to vote, but they denied that the government could do anything to protect the citizen in his right to work and his right to live. Today we stand committed to the proposition that freedom is no half-and-half affair. If the average citizen is guaranteed equal opportunity in the polling place, he must have equal opportunity in the market place.”

IfsGovernmentTodayPoliticalOrderOpportunityHalfEconomicCitizensProtectEqualVoteSlaveryAffairAverageCommittedGrantedDeniedPropositionsLive For TodayRight To VoteEqual OpportunityPolitical FreedomPollingConcededEconomic OrderEconomic Slavery
Book:The Essential Franklin Delano Roosevelt
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“Secondly, there are such things as roving wiretaps. Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires - a wiretap requires a court order. [...] Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so. [...]”

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Author:George W. Bush
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