Best citizens & majority Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“Violent resistance against the power of the state is the last resort of the minority in its effort to break loose from the oppression of the majority. ... The citizen must not be so narrowly circumscribed in his activities that, if he thinks differently from those in power, his only choice is either to perish or to destroy the machinery of state.”

Source: The free and prosperous commonwealth: an exposition of the ideas of classical liberalism

“What is supposed to happen in a democracy is that each sovereign citizen will always vote in the public interest for the safety and welfare of all. But what does happen is that he votes his own self-interest as he sees it... which for the majority translates as 'Bread and Circuses'.”

Doe Self Happens Interest Democracy Citizens Vote Safety Majority Bread Welfare Translate Sovereign Circus Self Interest Public Interest Bread And Circuses

Author:Robert A. Heinlein

“What frightens me about America today is that in the large majority there is no active sense of the value of the individual: few citizens feel that they are the Republic, responsible for what happens. And when the individual in a democracy ceases to feel his importance, then there is grave danger that he will give over his freedom, if not to a Fascist State, then to the advertising men or Publicity Agents or to the newspaper he happens to read.”

“The real transgression occurs when religion wants government to tell citizens how to live uniquely personal parts of their lives. The failure of Prohibition proves the futility of such an attempt when a majority or even a substantial minority happens to disagree. Some questions may be inherently individual ones, or people may be sharply divided about whether they are. In such cases, like Prohibition and abortion, the proper role of religion is to appeal to the conscience of the individual, not the coercive power of the state.”

People Want May Real States Government Happens Individual Roles Cases Citizens Prove Conscience Majority Appeals Abortion Minorities Divided Disagree Prohibition Futility Transgression

Author:Edward Kennedy

“Since there is no system of public education, the great majority of my fellow citizens is frighteningly ignorant. They have no idea where Iraq is. They accept as the gospel whatever the government tells them. Good grief, any other normal country would have been against the Iraq war! But we live in an abnormal country, governed by experts in deceptive advertising.”

Has Beens Ideas War Country Government Grief Accepting Citizens Normal Fellows Majority Iraq Ignorant Advertising No Idea Experts Iraq War Abnormal Deceptive Public Education

Author:Gore Vidal

“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.”

“Numbered among our population are some 12,000,000 colored people. Under our Constitution their rights are just as sacred as those of any other citizen. It is both a public and a private duty to protect those rights. The Congress ought to exercise all its powers of prevention and punishment against the hideous crime of lynching, of which the negroes are by no means the sole sufferers, but for which they furnish a majority of the victims.”

People Mean Rights Crime Duty Ought Citizens Exercise Protect Constitution Victim Sacred Majority Congress Population Punishment Sole Hideous Prevention Sufferers Lynching

Author:Calvin Coolidge

“To isolate the revolutionary ideologues and their killers we must gain the trust of the majority of Muslims. This can only happen if they are treated as equal citizens, not just in theory, and have access to decent education and jobs.”

Ifs Happens Jobs Education Theory Citizens Equal Gains Majority Access Treated Revolutionary Decent Killers Ideologues

Author:Ian Buruma

“To the extent that we consume, in our present circumstances, we are guilty. To the extent that we guilty consumers are conservationists, we are absurd. But what can we do? Must we go on writing letters to politicians and donating to conservation organizations until the majority of our fellow citizens agree with us? Or can we do something directly to solve our share of the problem? I am a conservationist. I believe wholeheartedly in putting pressure on the politicians and in maintaining the conservation organizations.”

“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

“A majority of American citizens are now becoming skeptical of the claim that our carbon footprints, resulting from our use of fossil fuels, are going to lead to climatic calamities. But governments are not yet listening to the citizens.”

Use Government Listening Becoming Citizens Claims Majority Fuel Carbon Fossils Calamity Skeptical Fossil Fuel Footprint American Citizens Burning Fossil Fuels Carbon Footprint

Author:John Coleman

“In our time all it takes for evil to flourish is for a few good men to be a little wrong and have a great deal of power, and for the vast majority of their fellow citizens to remain indifferent.”

Men Littles Evil Deals Citizens Fellows Majority Our Time Good Man Indifferent

Book:Once to Every Man: A Memoir

Source: Once to Every Man: A Memoir

“It is deeply interesting to notice also where the citizens were put to work. Each was set to labor on the bit of all opposite his home... I do not say that men are not called to service in far distant places... But I do say that for the vast majority the task that God appoints is the task lying at the door. The nearest thing is God's thing. The nearest duty is God's duty. He who cannot find his service there is little likely to be useful anywhere.”

Men Littles Home Lying Bits Interesting Doors Duty Citizens Labor Tasks Opposites Majority

Author:George H Morrison

“It is always unconscionable for the government to punish people for expressing an idea merely because government officials - or the majority of citizens - decide that those ideas are 'dangerous' or 'wrong.' That is a power nobody ought to possess.”

People Ideas Government Dangerous Ought Citizens Majority Officials Government Officials

Author:Glenn Greenwald

“Complaints are everywhere heard from our most considerate and virtuous citizens, equally the friends of public and private faith, and of public and personal liberty, that our governments are too unstable, that the public good is disregarded in the conflicts of rival parties, and that measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority.”

Source: The Federalist Papers: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution

“I assure my fellow citizens that the vast majority of Muslims experience the same fear they do. ISIS and Al Qaeda are my enemies, too. Most of the people killed by these groups have been Muslim.”

People Has Beens Enemy Groups Citizens Fellows Majority Als Isis Al Qaeda

Author:Debbie Almontaser

“There are a lot of people - and I'm not talking about elected Democrats - there are a lot of your fellow citizens - you don't know them, you don't know where they are - but there's many more of them than you know and realize, and they revel in all of this. They love the chaos. They love the majority being disturbed, bothered, shaken up by it.”

People Knows Realizing Talking Citizens Fellows Majority Democrat Chaos Bothered Disturbed Not Talking

Author:Rush Limbaugh

“Overwhelming the majority of European citizens are unhappy with the social deal they get, yes; and that is why they are so angry with their governments. Because they want more, much more! They couldn't care less that their benefits, salaries and other privileges, have been, for decades and centuries 'subsidized' by the plunder of other parts of the planet; that they are paid for by blood.”

Want Has Beens Government Care Social Deals Blood Century Planets Citizens Benefits Paid Angry Majority Privilege Decades Unhappy Overwhelming Salary Plunder

Author:Andre Vltchek

“In an era when too many Americans are losing their jobs or working for less, trying to make ends meet, in close cases Judge [Samuel] Alito has ruled the vast majority of the time against the claims of the individual citizens. He has acted instead in favor of government, large corporations and other powerful interests.”

Trying Ends Government Jobs Individual Interest Powerful Cases Judging Citizens Losing Claims Majority Favors Eras Corporations

Author:Edward Kennedy

“I am proud of Russia and I am sure that the vast majority of Russian citizens have great love and respect for their Motherland. We have much to be proud of: Russian culture and Russian history. We have every reason to believe in the future of our country. But we have no obsession that Russia must be a super power in the international arena. The only thing we do is protecting our vital interests.”

“In the referendum - which was still decided to take place by the Crimea's old parliament - the majority of citizens voted for belonging to Russia. This is democracy, the people's will.”

People Stills Democracy Citizens Decided Majority Russia Belonging Parliament Referendums Crimea

Author:Vladimir Putin

“I think that many citizens understand how our system works, or rather, fails to work, for structural reasons. But who has the capacity and the incentives to bring change? The banks and other corporations love the system because it allows them to buy legislation that serves their own interests even at the expense of the vast majority of citizens. Incumbent politicians love the system because it allows them to raise millions of dollars toward defending their seats.”

Thinking Reason Interest Millions Failing Citizens Politician Capacity Raises Majority Dollars Corporations Seats Expenses Legislation Incentives Incumbents

Author:Thomas Pogge

“I think not just Nigeria but I think the whole of Africa has to turn back to the rural areas and that's where the majority of the citizens are and that's where the engine of of development has to be found.”

Thinking Whole Turns Found Development Citizens Areas Majority Engines Nigeria Rural Areas

Author:Chinua Achebe

“If we are to take for the criterion of truth the majority of suffrages, they ought to be gotten from those philosophic and patriotic citizens who cultivate their reason.”

Ifs Reason Liberty Ought Citizens Majority Patriotic Criteria Suffrage Philosophic

Author:James Madison

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Citizens Quotes