Citizenship Quotes
45 quotes
"Everything can be explained to the people, on the single condition that you want them to understand."
"It’s not unpatriotic to denounce an injustice committed on our behalf, perhaps it’s the most patriotic thing we can do."
"A man should construct meaningful ideas at his own will if he wants to take citizenship responsibilty by helping others pursue their happiness."
"When justice is prioritized by any leader at any level then to give justice to the citizenry will always be at the back of the mind of such a leader."
"If there is any society where the leaders lack the knowledge and the importance of justice, then oppression will be a common neighbor of the citizens."
"Until there is equal and fair portion of opportunities apportioned for every citizen, the power structure may need to be restructured."
"It is particularly important to note that, in a democracy, education has never been concerned only with supplying the needs of the economy or ensuring effective socialisation; it also has strong traditions of preparing for citizenship, extending possibilities for learning and promoting social progress."
"Reject anything advice, which does not lead to your personal progress."
"[F]reedom isn't free. It shouldn't be a bragging point that "Oh, I don't get involved in politics," as if that makes you somehow cleaner. No, that makes you derelict of duty in a republic. Liars and panderers in government would have a much harder time of it if so many people didn't insist on their right to remain ignorant and blindly agreeable."
"Change can only take place if we desire the change."
"If a policy is wrongheaded feckless and corrupt I take it personally and consider it a moral obligation to sound off and not shut up until it's fixed."
"Achievement was worthy of praise and honor, but excessive achievement was pernicious and a threat to the state. However great a citizen might become, however great he might wish to become, the truest greatness of all still belonged to the Roman Republic itself"
"A champion, he said, wins a World Series or an Olympic and is hoisted on the shoulders of teammates and fans. A hero carries the people on his shoulders. Champions live for the moment- heroes, like Jackie Robinson, transcend time."
Sharon Robinson, Jackie's Nine: Jackie Robinson's Values to Live By: Becoming Your Best Self
"Every nation must have prayerful men and women to intercede for the country’s well-being."
"An act of charity by the citizens questions the worthiness of the government."
"Practical utility, however, is not the ultimate purpose of a liberal arts education. Its ultimate purpose is to help you learn to reflect in the widest and deepest sense, beyond the requirements of work and career: for the sake of citizenship, for the sake of living well with others, above all, for the sake of building a self that is strong and creative and free."
"It is a mistake to tell students that their classroom is a democracy- it cannot and never will be. But children need to learn how to participate in a community and to prepare themselves for democratic citizenship."
"Live for your country, die to yourself; live for yourself, die to your country."
"Your patriotism is not measured by what your country can do for you. It's all about what you can do for your country for your own benefit and for the benefit of unborn generations!"
"Darwin's theory was received in Russia with profound sympathy. While in Western Europe it met firmly established old traditions which it had first to overcome, in Russia its appearance coincided with the awakening of our society after the Crimean War and here it immediately received the status of full citizenship and ever since has enjoyed widespread popularity."
"It's a civic virtue to be exposed to things that appear to be outside your interest. In a complex world, almost everything affects you – that closes the loop on pecuniary self-interest. Customers are always right, but people aren't."
"We'd do well to remember that at the end of the day, the law doesn't defend us; we defend the law. And when it becomes contrary to our morals, we have both the right and the responsibility to rebalance it toward just ends."
"In his book The Soul of Black Folks, W.E.B. DuBois writes about always feeling "his twoness-- an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; to warring ideals in one dark body."
Ron Suskind, The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism
"Participation in the collective life of the polis both restrains the extraordinary individual and enlarges the ordinary individual, allowing him to participate in the extraordinary. An individual can achieve participatory excellence via the accomplishments of the polis and need not always be caught up in the agnostic struggle to outdo his peers."
Rebecca Goldstein, Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won't Go Away
"Governments represent their citizens in the same way as parasites represent their hosts."
Jakub Bożydar Wiśniewski, The Pith of Life: Aphorisms in Honor of Liberty
"Suffrage is a common right of citizenship. Women have the right of suffrage. Logically it cannot be escaped."
"The test of good citizenship is loyalty to country."
"I am a naturalized U.S. citizen, which means that, unlike native-born citizens, I had to prove to the U.S. government that I merited citizenship."
"The rate spread of EBOLA VIRUS in West Africa, is big tragedy. It is a fatal disease in the history of the world. Intensive education (formal and informal approaches) of the citizens of African can help prevent the spread. International cooperation is urgently needed to combat the EBOLA virus."
"Application does not guarantee citizenship; it is granted by the government. In Heaven, citizenship is granted only by Jesus Christ the ultimate judge. Matthew 7:15-23"
"In a republican nation, whose citizens are to be led by reason and persuasion and not by force, the art of reasoning becomes of first importance"
"I didn't flee a dictator or swim an ocean to be an American like some do. I just thought long and hard about it."
Craig Ferguson, American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot
"Stain not the glory of your worthy ancestors, but like them resolve never to part with your birthright; be wise in your deliberations, and determined in your exertions for the preservation of your liberties. Fllow not the dictates of passion, but enlist yourselves under the sacred banner of reason; use every method in your power to secure your rights."
"And it is undeniably true that the greatest and most important right of a British subject is that he shall be governed by no laws but those to which he, either in person or by his representatives, hath given his consent; and this, I will venture to assert, is the great basis of British freedom; it is interwoven with the Constitution, and whenever this is lost, the Constitution must be destroyed."
"You must completely dedicate yourselves to it. To do less will be to let down your country, your state, your parents, your teachers, and ultimately, yourselves. Remember this: The only good citizen is the well-educated citizen."
"[T]he success of democracy depends, in the end, on the reliability of the judgments we citizens make, and hence upon our capacity and determination to weigh arguments and evidence rationally."
"Privacy, self-reliance, choice -- all these can and must remina core American values. Yet so too must we remember that other core American value, the value of community. And we must redefine community more broadly to include not just our street or our tract, but our town, our metropolis, our region."
William Fulton, The Reluctant Metropolis: The Politics of Urban Growth in Los Angeles
"Democracy requires citizens to see things from one another's point of view, but instead were more and more enclosed in our own bubbles. Democracy requires a reliance on shared facts; instead were being offered parallel but separate universes."
Eli Pariser, The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding From You
"The complexity of the so-called individual that’s been praised for decades in America somehow has narrowed itself to the ‘me’. When I was a young girl we were called citizens – American citizens. We were second-class citizens, but that was the word. In the 50s and 60s they started calling us consumers. So we did – consume. Now they don’t use those words any more – it’s the American taxpayer and those are different attitudes."
"It is a tragedy, at rate at which EBOLA VIRUS is spreading in West Africa. It is a fatal disease in the history of the world. Intensive education (formal and informal approaches) of the citizens of African can help prevent the spread. International cooperation is urgently needed to combat the EBOLA virus."
"The Prussian monarchy is not a country which has an army, but an army which has a country in which – as it were – it is just stationed."
"Along with voting, jury duty, and paying taxes, goofing off is one of the central obligations of American citizenship. So when my friends Joel and Stephen and I play hooky from our jobs in the middle of the afternoon to play Pop-A-Shot in a room full of children, I like to think we are not procrastinators; we are patriots pursuing happiness."
"Radical Islamic jihadists have a long-term vision. And if they have to stay in Europe to obtain a citizenship, to ultimately travel to the United States, and if it takes them five years or ten years, they're okay with that. History has proven that."
"There are an awful lot of people who despise government precisely because it opened the door for common citizenship for people of all races and all natures in the United States."
"Before swearing in new citizens, immigration officials check to make sure prospective citizens weren't on voter rolls or voted before achieving legal citizenship. A citizenship petition can be denied if they were."