"I
realized that public affairs were also my affairs. I became
active in politics because I saw the possibility, if we
all sat back and did nothing, of a world in which there
would no longer be any stages for actors to act on."
-- Helen Gahagan Douglas (1900-1980)
"A
passive and ignorant citizenry will never create a sustainable
world."
-- Andrew Gaines
"Which
is the best government? That which teaches us to govern
ourselves."
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"The
job of a citizen is to keep his mouth open."
-- Gunter Grass
*
Without
free, self-respecting, and autonomous citizens there
can be no free and independent nations. Without internal
peace, that is, peace among citizens and between the
citizens and the state, there can be no guarantee
of external peace.
-- Vaclav
Havel |
 |
"A
generation that acquires knowledge without ever understanding
how that knowledge can benefit the community is a generation
that is not learning what it means to be citizens in a
democracy."
-- Elizabeth L. Hollander (1817-1885)
"If
you look back in history, you will find the core mission
of public education in America was to create places of
civic virtue for our children and for our society. As
education undergoes the rigors of re-examination and the
need for reinvention, it is cruicial to remember that
the key role of public schools is to preserve democracy
and, that as battered as we might be, our mission is central
to the future of this county."
-- Paul D. Houston, Executive director of the American
Association of School Administrators
"A
community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared
to take the helm."
-- Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian playwright (1828-1906)
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|
"A
nation, as a society, forms a moral person, and
every member of it is personally responsible for
his society."
-- Thomas
Jefferson
"It
is strangely absurd to suppose that a million of
human beings, collected together, are not under
the same moral laws which bind each of them separately."
-- Thomas
Jefferson
|
|
*
"Ask
not what your country can do for you…Ask what you
can do for your country."
-- John
F. Kennedy
"The
efforts of the government alone will never be enough.
In the end the people must choose and the people
must help themselves."
-- John
F. Kennedy
|
|
“What
do I owe to my times, to my country, to my neighbors,
to my friends? Such are the questions which a virtuous
man ought often to ask himself.”
-- Johann Kaspar Lavater, German poet and physiognomist
(1741-1801)
|
"Let
us at all times remember that all American citizens
are brothers of a common country, and should dwell
together in bonds of fraternal feeling."
-- Abraham
Lincoln
|
 |
"Democracy
is never a thing done. Democracy is always something that
a nation must be doing."
-- Archibald MacLeish, American poet, public official
(1892-1982)
 |
"Democracy
is the most demanding of all forms of government
in terms of the energy, imagination, and public
spirit required of the individual."
-- George
C. Marshall (1880-1959)
|
*
"Never
doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed
citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only
thing that ever has."
-- Margaret
Mead |
|
 |
"The
worth of the state, in the long run, is the worth
of the individuals composing it."
-- John
Stuart Mill
|
"If
I knew something that would serve my country but would
harm mankind, I would never reveal it; for I am a citizen
of humanity first and by necessity, and a citizen of France
second, and only by accident"
-- Charles de Montesquieu
"Neither
democracy nor effective representation is possible until
each participant in the group...devotes a measurable part
of his life to furthering its existence."
-- Lewis Mumford, American social philosopher (1895-1990)
 |
*
There
can be no daily democracy without daily citizenship.
-- Ralph
Nader |
Bad
officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote.
-- George Jean Nathan
"The
most important thing an institution does is not to prepare
a student for a career but for a life as a citizen."
-- Frank Newman
 |
"The
World is my country, all mankind are my brethren,
and to do good is my religion."
-- Thomas
Paine. |
The
punishment which the wise suffer, who refuse to take part
in government, is to live under the government of worse
men.
-- Plato
"The
Greek word for idiot, literally translated, means one
who does not participate in politics. That sums up my
conviction on the subject."
Gladys Pyle, Senator (1890-1989)
Full
participation in government and society has been a basic
right of the country symbolizing the full citizenship
and equal protection of all.
-- Charles Rangel
|
"The
government is us; we are the government, you and
I."
-- Theodore
Roosevelt
"The
first requisite of a good citizen in this republic
of ours is that he shall be able and willing to
pull his own weight."
-- Theodore
Roosevelt
|
|
 |
Whatever
system of governance is eventually adopted, it is
important that it carries the people with it. We need
to convey the message that safeguarding our common
property, humankind, will require developing in each
of us a new loyalty: a loyalty to mankind. It calls
for the nurturing of a feeling of belonging to the
human race. We have to become world citizens.
-- Joseph
Rotblat |
|
As
global citizens, it is our responsibility to become
active participants in our democracy, and to make
sure that everyone's civil rights are protected.
-- Robert
Alan Silverstein
|
 |
"As
citizens of this democracy, you are the rulers and
the ruled, the law-givers and the law-abiding, the
beginning and the end."
-- Adlai
Stevenson
|
|
"I
am a citizen, not of Athens or Greece, but of the world"
-- Socrates
Citizenship is what makes a republic -- monarchies
can get along without it.
-- Mark
Twain |
|
|
|
*
"Today,
when the consequences of our actions (and inaction!)
reach further into time and space than at any previous
point in history, we more than ever need politically
engaged citizens."
-- Jakob
von Uexkull
|
 |
We
are citizens of the world. The tragedy of our times
is that we do not know this.
-- Woodrow
Wilson
|
