Civic Virtue Quotes

“Democracy is not simply a license to indulge individual whims and proclivities. It is also holding oneself accountable to some reasonable degree for the conditions of peace and chaos that impact the lives of those who inhabit one’s beloved extended community.”
― Aberjhani, Splendid Literarium: A Treasury of Stories, Aphorisms, Poems, and Essays

“We need an assembly, not for cleverness, but for setting things straight.”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies

“Whatever may have been my political opinions before, I have but one sentiment now: that is, we have a government, and laws, and a flag, and they must all be sustained. There are but two parties now: traitors and patriots. And I want hereafter to be ranked with the latter.”
― Ulysses S. Grant

“He who is a useful keeper of anything is also a better thief.”
― Plato

“The ills attributed to an anthropomorphic abstraction called "society" may be laid more realistically at the door of Everyman. Utopia must spring in the private bosom before it can flower into civic virtue, inner reforms leading to outer ones. A man who has reformed himself will reform thousands.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi

“Noting the lack of crime or security in the Netherlands, the author asked a native who guarded a national landmark. He got the replay, "We all do.”
― Bill Bryson, Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe

“When people say things that we find offensive, civic charity asks that we resist the urge to attribute to immorality or prejudice views that can be equally well explained by other motives. It asks us to give the benefit of doubts, the assumption of goodwill, and the gift of attention. When people say things that agree with or respond thoughtfully to our arguments, we acknowledge that they have done so. We compliment where we can do so honestly, and we praise whatever we can legitimately find praiseworthy in their beliefs and their actions.

When we argue with a forgiving affection, we recognize that people are often carried away by passions when discussing things of great importance to them. We overlook slights and insults and decline to respond in kind. We apologize when we get something wrong or when we hurt someone's feelings, and we allow others to apologize to us when they do the same.

When people don't apologize, we still don't hold grudges or hurt them intentionally, even if we feel that they have intentionally hurt us. If somebody is abusive or obnoxious, we may decline to participate in further conversation, but we don't retaliate or attempt to make them suffer. And we try really hard not to give in to the overwhelming feeling that arguments must be won - and opponents destroyed - if we want to protect our own status or sense of worth. We never forget that our opponents are human beings who possess innate dignity and fellow citizens who deserve respect.”
― Michael Austin, We Must Not Be Enemies: Restoring America's Civic Tradition

“the republican revolution was the greatest utopian movement in American history. The revolutionaries aimed at nothing less than a reconstruction of American society....They sought to reconstruct a society and governments based on virtue and distinterested public leadership and to set in motion a moral movement that would eventually be felt around the globe.”
― Gordon S. Wood, The Radicalism of the American Revolution

“The good polis is made by the good person, his moral character intact, and the good polis, in turn, helps turn out good persons, their moral character intact.”
― Rebecca Goldstein, Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won't Go Away

“particular rootlessness of the society had always lent itself to powerful extremes of both the left and the right, there was, in the volatility and evanescence of the culture an atmosphere ripe for extremism, each side with its own Utopian dreams, each side driving the other to a more polarized position.”
― David Halberstam, The Powers That Be

“Public symbols matter. They are one of the ways we tell each other, and the world, what we honor.”
― Michael W. McConnell

“Republicanism was easier to evolve than to define.”
― Mark A. Noll, The Civil War as a Theological Crisis

“Adams drew from the War of 1812 the disconcerting conclusion that occasional wars are indispensable for the inculcation of civic virtue and hence long-term health of republican government.
Adams to Rush, "Wars at times are as necessary for the preservation and perfection, the prosperity, Liberty, happiness, Virtue, & independence of Nations as Gales of wind to the Saluburity of the Atmosphere, or the agitations of the Ocean to prevent its stagnation and putrefaction."
There is a definite echo here of Jefferson's famous claim that "a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical," as well well as Adam's own hope during the Revolution that "the Furnace of Affliction" would help to purify the nation, ridding it of its softness and selfishness."
Adams, "We all regret or affect to regret War...There never was a Republick; no nor any other People, under whatever Government, that could maintain their Independence, much less grow and propser, without it." ...
"What horrid Creatures we Men are," he mused, " that we cannont be virtuous without murdering one another."
Chapter 9, page 139-140”
― Dennis C. Rasmussen, Fears of a Setting Sun: The Disillusionment of America's Founders

“Civic sense without common sense leads to mob violence.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Rowdy Scientist: Handbook of Humanitarian Science

“There was then, an American tradition of morality and virtues. "As Americans," wrote former U.S. Congresswoman and Author Clare Luce Booth, "we can proudly say that the traditional moral values of our society have been a reflection, however imperfect, of this universal morality. All of our great men, all of our heroes, have been exemplars of some, if not all, of these virtues.”
― Dee R. Edgeworth, The High Ground: Why Civic Virtue Matters to America

“There was then, an American tradition of morality and virtues. As Americans, wrote former U.S. Congresswoman and Author Clare Luce Booth, we can proudly say that the traditional moral values of our society have been a reflection, however imperfect, of this universal morality. All of our great men, all of our heroes, have been exemplars of some, if not all, of these virtues.”
― Dee R. Edgeworth, The High Ground: Why Civic Virtue Matters to America

“What can we do to promote a return to traditional values and beliefs? First, we must have private virtue in our personal lives. We cannot change America or the world if we do not live those virtues in our private lives. We can start the transformation in our own homes and communities and in our interactions with others.”
― Dee Edgeworth

“So now we are ready to ask: In what direction can we say that Americans are going? Are we, as a people, going on the high road of universal morality or on the low road of universal immorality? The question is a crucial one for the future of our country. All history bears witness to the fact that there can be no public virtue without private morality. There can be no good government except in a good society. And there cannot be a good society unless the majority of the individuals in it are at least trying to be good people.”
― Clare Luce Booth, Is the New Morality Destroying America