Citizens Quotes

“Socrates: Have you noticed on our journey how often the citizens of this new land remind each other it is a free country?
Plato: I have, and think it odd they do this.
Socrates: How so, Plato?
Plato: It is like reminding a baker he is a baker, or a sculptor he is a
sculptor.
Socrates: You mean to say if someone is convinced of their trade, they have
no need to be reminded.
Plato: That is correct.
Socrates: I agree. If these citizens were convinced of their freedom, they would not need reminders.”
― E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly

“Trump’s America is not America: not today’s or tomorrow’s, but yesterday’s.

Trump’s America is brutal, perverse, regressive, insular and afraid. There is no hope in it; there is no light in it. It is a vast expanse of darkness and desolation.

And that is a vision of America that most of the people in this country cannot and will not abide.”
― Charles M. Blow

“The new America, instead, is fast becoming a vast ghetto in which all of us, conservatives and progressives, are being bled dry by a relatively tiny oligarchy of extremely clever financial criminals and their castrato henchmen in government, whose job is to be good actors on TV and put on a good show.”
― Matt Taibbi, Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America

“Profit should never come at the cost of human blood. Any government that places profit before people is pure evil.”
― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

“No civilization, including Plato's, has ever been destroyed because its citizens learned too much.”
― Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

“When bad news is riding high and despair in fashion, when loud mouths and corruption seem to own center stage, when some keep crying that the country is going to the dogs, remember it’s always been going to the dogs in the eyes of some, and that 90 percent, or more, of the people are good people, generous-hearted, law-abiding, good citizens who get to work on time, do a good job, love their country, pay their taxes, care about their neighbors, care about their children’s education, and believe, rightly, as you do, in the ideals upon which our way of life is founded.”
― David McCullough, The American Spirit: Who We Are and What We Stand For

“When our government is spoken of as some menacing, threatening foreign entity, it ignores the fact that, in our democracy, government is us.”
― Barack Obama

“The United States is an easy country to love because you can take it on faith that, at some point in every waking hour of the day, there is among your fellow citizens a vast exaltation of opinions that test the outer boundaries of the Crazoid.”
― Charles P. Pierce, Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free

“It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the Government from falling into error.”
― Robert H. Jackson

“What about the contacts your mum had?” his dad asked.
“I rang and spoke to four very polite computers who gave me all these options and then cut out on me. Then I tried the post office, because they were advertising, and I spoke to another computer. Very rude, that one. Don’t think it recognized ‘Are you shitting me?’ as an option.”
“You know why that is?”
“Why is that, Dominic?” Tom had asked drolly, because he knew he was going to be told why.
“Because we don’t live in a society anymore, Tom. We live in an economy. We’re not citizens. We’re customers. That’s what this government’s done to us.”
― Melina Marchetta, The Piper's Son

“Everyone who receives protection from the society owes a return for the benefit.”
― John Stuart Mill, The Corn Laws

“Some politicians in the United States think that if a mother or father is deported, this will cause the entire family to move back to Mexico. But in fact, the mothers and fathers with the best family values will want their family to stay in the U.S., they will cross the border again and again to be with them. So you see, these same people, the ones with the most dedication to their family, they begin to build up a record of deportation, they have more and more problems with the government, and it becomes harder and harder for them to ever become legal. In this way, the U.S. is making criminals out of those who could become its very best citizens.”
― Francisco Cantú, The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches From the Border

“La más común y duradera fuente de fraccionamiento ha sido la variada y desigual distribución de la propiedad”
― James Madison

“Things are always changing ... It's true, some of the worst things keep repeating themselves, but things do change. And as citizens, we can do our part to keep things moving in the right direction.”
― Charmaine Wilkerson, Good Dirt

“You are worse than a corrupt politician if you don't vote, because tomorrow. You will be the first to complain about bad service delivery and how bad the country is being run by bad leaders and criminals.”
― De philosopher DJ Kyos

“Nothing is more dangerous in political life than the abandonment of reason. The intellect must remain the controlling, regulating force in human affairs.”
― Kurt Sontheimer

“Everybody is a terrorist,
till you see the reformist
(The Sonnet)

Everybody is a president,
till you see the first servant.
Everybody is king kong,
till emerges the first sapiens.

Everybody is marconi,
till you meet the Nikola.
Everybody is prime minister,
till you see the transformer.

Everybody is mercenary,
till you see the tsunami.
Everybody is a godman,
till awakens commoner godly.

Everybody is police,
till comes the vessel of peace.
Everybody is a terrorist,
till you see the reformist.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Dervis Vadisi: 100 Promissory Sonnets

“Lions don't leave society in the hands of government. Government is second in command - civilians, chief commander.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Dervis Vadisi: 100 Promissory Sonnets

“A governance model steeped in ethical practices earns public trust and legitimacy. When citizens witness their government’s unwavering commitment to ethical standards, it reinforces the foundations of a stable, harmonious society.”
― Abdellatif Raji, Heaven Is Under the Feet of Governments: Steering Nations With Maqasid

“To lift the world is a labor of love,
Still it strikes strain on mind at times.
That's where reformer stands out in crowd,
No strain clouds long a mission-driven mind.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Insan Himalayanoğlu: It's Time to Defect

“A nation is great when brothers and sisters of all backgrounds can live together as free citizens.”
― Aegelis

“Nothing can suppress the impact of organized citizenry. Year after year, the young generation forgets on how there was a time when Congress worked for us to some degree. There was a time when citizen action was worthwhile and produced results. So as we get - a younger generation doesn't have the historical context. The preamble of the Constitution starts with we, the people. It doesn't start with we, the corporation. It doesn't start with we, the Congress. It starts with we, the people.”
― Ralph Nader

“Tyrants view educated citizens as their greatest enemy.”
― Robert B. Reich

“Citizens without brain leads to democracy on drugs.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Iftar-e Insaniyat: The First Supper

“All governments are a facade,
all politicians are merely actors.
In a civilized world citizen is the leader,
obsolete is the profession of world leaders.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Iftar-e Insaniyat: The First Supper

“In a civilized world citizen is the leader, obsolete is the profession of world leaders.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Iftar-e Insaniyat: The First Supper

“Political participation of the ordinary citizen in America is pretty much restricted to the intermittently recurring elections: Politics is not organized to be a daily concern and responsibility of the common citizen. The relative paucity of trade unions, cooperatives, and other civic interest organizations tends to accentuate this abstention on the part of the common citizens from sharing in the government of their communities as a normal routine of life.”
― Gunnar Myrdal, An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy Vol. 1

“There was no other prisoner who evoked rage and frustration in the citizens of Florida the way Bundy did. For many of them, he was no longer a human being; he was a cause.”
― Ann Rule, The Stranger Beside Me: Ted Bundy: The Shocking Inside Story

“The greatest activist is the conscientious commoner.”
― Abhijit Naskar, With Love From A Blue Rock

“There is no greater environmental stabilizer than commoners jolted to duty.”
― Abhijit Naskar, With Love From A Blue Rock