Citizenship quotes

Words about the duties, rights and shared work of members of a nation.

• Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.

• Now, this is where I learned that change only happens when ordinary people get involved and they get engaged and they come together to demand it.

• Each generation of Americans must define what it means to be an American.

• Every American citizen must have an equal right to vote.

• From now on in America, any definition of the successful life must include service to others.

• Universal suffrage should rest upon universal education.

• The President of the United States of necessity owes his election to office to the suffrage and zealous labors of a political party, the members of which cherish with ardor and regard as of essential importance the principles of their party organization; but he should strive to be always mindful of the fact that he serves his party best who serves the country best.

• Anyone who has taken the oath I have just taken must feel a heavy weight of responsibility.

• The worst evil of disregard for some law is that it destroys respect for all law.

• …now, more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption.

• There can be no permanent disfranchised peasantry in the United States.

• ...you must remember, my fellow-citizens, that eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty, and that you must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing.

• When an election to office shall be the selection by the voters of one of their number to assume for a time a public trust instead of his dedication to the profession of politics; when the holders of the ballot, quickened by a sense of duty, shall avenge truth betrayed and pledges broken, and when the suffrage shall be altogether free and uncorrupted, the full realization of a government by the people will be at hand.