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Civics Quotes

Browse 305 quotes about Civics.

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Civics Quotes

“If the citizens themselves devote their life to matters of trade, the way will be opened to many vices. Since the foremost tendency of tradesmen is to make money, greed is awakened in the hearts of the citizens through the pursuit of trade. The result is that everything in the city will bcome venal; good faith will be destroyed and the way opened to all kinds of trickery; each one will work only for his own profit, despising the public good; the cultivation of virtue will fail since honor, virtue's reward, will be bestowed upon the rich. Thus, in such a city, civic life will necessarily be corrupted. (On Kingship II, 3)”

PhilosophyPoliticsWealthMoneyEthicsCapitalismEconomicsTheologyCivicsThomism
Author:Thomas Aquinas
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“The need to revive civic education in our modern democracies is of the utmost importance to our future ability to preserve our democratic institutions and civil society. It is critical to preserving the equality of fundamental rights of all people. It is critical to developing the capacity for effective action to address the many complex social, political, economic, and environmental challenges arrayed before us. It is critical if we are going to successfully navigate the Fourth Industrial Revolution and ensure it truly results in positive disruptions that work in the interests of the people by democratizing social, financial, and political edifices -- rather than simply intensifying the concentration of wealth, power, and influence.”

JusticeDemocracyCivilityCivicsCivil SocietyToxic CultureCivic Education
Book:Save Your City: How Toxic Culture Kills Community & What to Do About It
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“Home Economics & Civics What ever happened to the two courses that were cornerstone programs of public education? For one, convenience foods made learning how to cook seem irrelevant. Home Economics was also gender driven and seemed to stratify women, even though most well paid chefs are men. Also, being considered a dead-end high school program, in a world that promotes continuing education, it has waned in popularity. With both partners in a marriage working, out of necessity or choice, career-minded couples would rather go to a restaurant or simply micro-burn a frozen pre-prepared food packet. Almost anybody that enjoys the preparation of food can make a career of it by going to a specialty school such as the Culinary Institute of America along the Hudson River in Hyde Park, New York. Also, many colleges now have programs that are directed to those that are interested in cooking as a career. However, what about those that are looking to other career paths but still have a need to effectively run a household? Who among us is still concerned with this mundane but necessary avocation that so many of us are involved with? Public Schools should be aware that the basic requirements to being successful in life include how to balance and budget a checking and a savings account. We should all be able to prepare a wholesome, nutritious and delicious meal, make a bed and clean up behind one’s self, not to mention taking care of children that may become a part of the family structure. Now, note that this has absolutely nothing to do with politics and is something that members of all parties can use. Civics is different and is deeply involved in politics and how our government works. However, it doesn’t pick sides…. What it does do is teach young people the basics of our democracy. Teaching how our Country developed out of the fires of a revolution, fought out of necessity because of the imposing tyranny of the British Crown is central. How our “Founding Fathers” formed this union with checks and balances, allowing us to live free, is imperative. Unfortunately not enough young people are sufficiently aware of the sacrifices made, so that we can all live free. During the 1930’s, most people understood and believed it was important that we live in and preserve our democracy. People then understood what Patrick Henry meant when in 1776 he proclaimed “Give me liberty or give me death.” During the 1940’s, we fought a great war against Fascist dictatorships. A total of sixty million people were killed during that war, which amounted to 3% of everyone on the planet. If someone tells us that there is not enough money in the budget, or that Civic courses are not necessary or important, they are effectively undermining our Democracy. Having been born during the great Depression of the 1930’s, and having lived and lost family during World War II, I understand the importance of having Civics taught in our schools. Our country and our way of life are all too valuable to be squandered because of ignorance. Over 90 million eligible voters didn’t vote in the 2016 presidential election. This means that 40% of our fellow citizens failed to exercise their right to vote! Perhaps they didn’t understand their duty or how vital their vote is. Perhaps it’s time to reinvigorate what it means to be a patriotic citizen. It’s definitely time to reinstitute some of the basic courses that teach our children how our American way of life works. Or do we have to relive history again?”

American HistoryCivicsCaptain Hank BrackerHome Econmics
Author:Captain Hank Bracker
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“Honor He Wrote Sonnet 56 It's the citizens’ duty to make a nation nonpartisan, Government is meant to serve as powerless figurehead. All my hopes lie in the hands of accountable citizens, A good politician acts a citizen, not political dunderhead. So no more procrastination with the curation of society, No more playing hooky in the school of life and sanity. Be the politician that you seek in the sewers of state, Not by law but by an indefatigable accountability. Democracy means rule of the people, not sleep of people, Yet that's what it means to people 'n politicians alike. But shhh, nobody is supposed to admit any of it in public, For discretion is the better part of a society of sleeping mice. Let sleeping slime sleep, if you are human, take charge now. Dream with your eyes open and keep your democracy vow.”

PoliticsDemocracySocial ResponsibilityPolitical ScienceCivicsSocial StudiesSocial ScienceHumanist PoetryPolitical PoemNonpartisan
Book:Honor He Wrote: 100 Sonnets For Humans Not Vegetables
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“Democracy is not something we have by divine right. It is a hard-won privilege granted to us by those who came before us and fought for it. These were people who knew the tyranny and injustice of oppressive masters who would deny ordinary people a voice and basic human rights, such as freedom of expression and association. But we forget that democracy requires an active, informed, and engaged citizenry that seeks the well-being of all, not just their gang, in order to thrive.”

DemocracyCivilityCivicsCommunity BuildingToxic CultureCivic EducationCivic ValuesSave Your CitySustainable Communities
Book:Save Your City: How Toxic Culture Kills Community & What to Do About It
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“Alexis de Tocqueville warned that as the economy and government of America got bigger, citizens could become smaller: less practiced in the forms of everyday power, more dependent on vast distant social machines, more isolated and atomized--and therefore more susceptible to despotism. He warned that if the "habits of the heart" fed by civic clubs and active self-government evaporated, citizens would regress to pure egoism. They would stop thinking about things greater than their immediate circle. Public life would disappear. And that would only accelerate their own disempowerment. This is painfully close to a description of the United States since Trump and Europe since Brexit. And the only way to reverse this vicious cycle of retreat and atrophy is to reverse it: to find a sense of purpose that is greater than the self, and to exercise power with others and for others in democratic life.”

AmericaPoliticsDemocracyCivics
Book:You're More Powerful Than You Think: A Citizen's Guide to Making Change Happen
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“When an economist attempts to prove that it is "irrational" to vote in national elections (because the effort expended outweighs the likely benefit to the individual voter), they use the term because they do not wish to say "irrational for actors for whom civic participation, political ideals, of the common good are not values in themselves, but who view public affairs only in terms of personal advantage.”

ValuesRationalityEconomistCivics
Book:The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy
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“I served our country in its military for a total of 40 years 6 months and 7 days. At a time when we have fake news and people have accepted that lies are as valid as the truth all I can say is that my DD-214 shows that I served and retired from the United States Naval Reserve, before joining the United States Army in its Military Intelligence Corps, and served as such until retiring in 1987. I personally don’t know of anyone else that actually served in two branches of our military and retired from each, and although I frequently receive thanks for my service it is appreciated but not necessary. What is however necessary, is that we as citizens give a long hard look at where we are going as a nation. Yes, our infrastructure needs repair and our people need good jobs. We certainly want to feel secure but we definitely don’t need one man to fix our Constitution, which by the way is not broken! We do not need a crude iron fist to run our country! What we do need is a clear understanding of where we are going and what our country stands for…. “The pursuit of happiness” for “We the People!” Our government is based on a system of checks and balances, not the blind following of an autocrat. That’s been tried before and failed each time. Let’s not go down that “Rabbit hole!” Stand up and protect our democracy and cherish our freedom! What we have is priceless! Don’t let anyone take that away from us…. “Stand up for what is right!”

WisdomPoliticsHistoryCivics
Author:Captain Hank Bracker
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“Altruism, generosity, solidarity and civic spirit are not like commodities that are depleted with use. They are more like muscles that develop and grow stronger with exercise. One of the defects of a market-driven society is that it lets these virtues languish. To renew our public life we need to exercise them more strenuously.”

ValuesEconomicsCivicsCommercialism
Book:What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets
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“The law is too important to be left to the lawyers, to paraphrase Georges Clemenceau about war and generals. We laymen know too little about our Constitution and think too superficially about its influence on the qualities of American life. Civic duty requires more.”

PoliticalPatrioticSkepticismCivicsAmerican
Book:The Rights of the People: How Our Search for Safety Invades Our Liberties
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“It is all-essential to the continuance of our healthy national life that we should recognize this community of interest among our people. The welfare of each of us is dependent fundamentally upon the welfare of all of us, and therefore in public life that man is the best representative of each of us who seeks to do good to each by doing good to all; in other words, whose endeavor it is not to represent any special class and promote merely that class's selfish interests, but to represent all true and honest men of all sections and all classes and to work for their interests by working for our common country.”

CommunityUnitySelfishnessCooperationCivicsGeneral Welfare
Book:A Square Deal
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“We want things to return to normal, back to a world in which we do not have to waste time rebutting demented conspiracy theories and fact-checking farcical lies every single day. We want a government that operates competently and honestly, headed by a president who behaves with dignity and integrity. If we were at risk of under-appreciating the quiet grace of decency, Trump has cured us of that. But after we evict the squatter, we must repair the house he trashed. Trump became president because millions of Americans felt that a self-satisfied elite had created a pleasant society only for themselves. Millions of other Americans felt disregarded and discarded. They determined to crash their way in, and they wielded Trump as their crowbar to pry open the barriers against them. Trump is a criminal and deserves the penalties of law. Trump's enablers and politics and media are contemptable and deserve the scorn of honest patriots. But Trump's voters are our compatriots. Their fate will determine ours. You do not beat Trump until you have restored an America that has room for all its people. The resentments that produced Trump will not be assuaged by contempt for the resentful. Reverse prejudice, reverse stereotyping, never mind whether they are right or wrong--they are wrong--just be aware that they are acids poored upon the connections that bind a democratic society. [...] Maybe you cannot bring everybody along with you. But you still must try--for your own sake, as well as theirs.”

PoliticsUnited StatesCivics
Book:Trumpocalypse: Restoring American Democracy
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“We should worry again about the connection between play-starved education and eroded mechanisms for political debate, if worry can lead beyond deadlocks. Too often, academic essays pursue analysis and critique but stop short of speculation about remedies, as if intellectual work excluded an element of creativity. In fact, essays that remain risk-averse miss the potential of the genre to "assay," or try out, ideas.”

WritingAestheticsCivicsEssayHumanitiesCitizhenshipIntellectual Work
Book:The Work of Art in the World: Civic Agency and Public Humanities
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“Honor He Wrote Sonnet 93 Citizen lover is citizen justice, All others are citizens of malice. Love begets justice, whereas, Judgment produces more malice. All think, justice is an independent force, But, justice is simply a descendant of love. Where there is love, justice prevails, Otherwise, there's just talk of justice 'n love. Pledge allegiance to no judgment by intellect, But only to love and love alone, my friend. Where there is a place for love, There is place for everything else. Once a person has realized love untaintable, They've achieved everything celebratable.”

DemocracyRevolutionSocial JusticeInjusticeHumanitarianPolitical ScienceCivicsSocial StudiesPower To The PeoplePolitical Poem
Book:Honor He Wrote: 100 Sonnets For Humans Not Vegetables
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“Everybody is a terrorist, till you see the reformist. Bring that reformer out my friend, in its full glory and ferociousness. Once you do, every time a politician or fundamentalist even dreams of doing something inhuman, a voice of caution will strike them from inside - don't you dare, kid - or else, they’ll bring hell down on you - then you’ll have neither the seat, nor the ass to sit on it!”

Political ScienceCivicsDemocratic SocietyCivic DutyGovernment AbuseParty PoliticsCivil Rights QuotesCorrupt PoliticiansCitizen PowerBribery Corruption
Book:Mucize Misafir Merhaba: The Peace Testament
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“When the civilians remember their responsibility, politicians will forget which party they belong to, so will their next of kin. And at the slightest urge for exploitation, a voice of caution will ring in their head - don't you dare, kid - or else, you’ll have neither the seat nor the ass to sit on it!”

Political ScienceCivicsDemocratic SocietyCivic DutyGovernment AbuseParty PoliticsCivil Rights QuotesCorrupt PoliticiansCitizen PowerBribery Corruption
Book:Corazon Calamidad: Obedient to None, Oppressive to None
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“When it comes to making self-soothing choices about how to engage, this means going to speaking events where you are empowered to make change, where you are inspired by the group and activities rather than drained. Finding comfortable spaces with like-minded people is a way to feel less alone in your world-views and supported by community.”

PoliticsCommunityCivics
Book:Democracy in Retrograde: How to Make Changes Big and Small in Our Country and in Our Lives
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“The national parklands have a major role in providing superlative opportunities for outdoor recreation, but they have other people serving values. They can provide an experience in conservation education for the young people of the country; they can enrich our literary and artistic consciousness; they can help create social values; contribute to our civic consciousness; remind us of our debt to the land of our fathers.”

PeopleCountryHelpingYoungValuesFatherOpportunitySocialConsciousnessRolesLandMajorsDebtArtisticParksServingProvidingConservationOur FatherCivicsRecreationSocial ValuesSuperlativesOutdoor Recreation
Author:Stewart Udall
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“Bengalis love to celebrate their language, their culture, their politics, their fierce attachment to a city that has been famously dying for more than a century. They resent with equal ferocity the reflex stereotyping that labels any civic dysfunction anywhere in the world 'another Calcutta.'”

WorldHas BeensCultureLanguageCitiesCenturyDyingEqualCelebrateLabelsAttachmentFierceStereotypeResentCivicsReflexesCalcuttaDysfunctionFerocity
Author:Bharati Mukherjee
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