Civics Quotes

“The question of the stranger in a society which estranges everybody from it--while forcing everybody to assimilate their own alienation--takes cover under dubious and sinister masks.”
― Norman Manea

“We should change the name of AR-15s to 'Marco Rubio' because they are so easy to buy”
― sarah chadwick

“Our new revolutionary government really has its work cut out for it!”
― Michael G. Kramer, The Full Circle for Mick

“Altruism, generosity, solidarity and civic spirit are not like commodities that are depleted with use. They are more like muscles that develop and grow stronger with exercise. One of the defects of a market-driven society is that it lets these virtues languish. To renew our public life we need to exercise them more strenuously.”
― Michael J. Sandel, What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets

“The law is too important to be left to the lawyers, to paraphrase Georges Clemenceau about war and generals. We laymen know too little about our Constitution and think too superficially about its influence on the qualities of American life. Civic duty requires more.”
― David K. Shipler, The Rights of the People: How Our Search for Safety Invades Our Liberties

“It is all-essential to the continuance of our healthy national life that we should recognize this community of interest among our people. The welfare of each of us is dependent fundamentally upon the welfare of all of us, and therefore in public life that man is the best representative of each of us who seeks to do good to each by doing good to all; in other words, whose endeavor it is not to represent any special class and promote merely that class's selfish interests, but to represent all true and honest men of all sections and all classes and to work for their interests by working for our common country.”
― Theodore Roosevelt, A Square Deal

“We want things to return to normal, back to a world in which we do not have to waste time rebutting demented conspiracy theories and fact-checking farcical lies every single day. We want a government that operates competently and honestly, headed by a president who behaves with dignity and integrity. If we were at risk of under-appreciating the quiet grace of decency, Trump has cured us of that. But after we evict the squatter, we must repair the house he trashed. Trump became president because millions of Americans felt that a self-satisfied elite had created a pleasant society only for themselves. Millions of other Americans felt disregarded and discarded. They determined to crash their way in, and they wielded Trump as their crowbar to pry open the barriers against them. Trump is a criminal and deserves the penalties of law. Trump's enablers and politics and media are contemptable and deserve the scorn of honest patriots. But Trump's voters are our compatriots. Their fate will determine ours. You do not beat Trump until you have restored an America that has room for all its people. The resentments that produced Trump will not be assuaged by contempt for the resentful. Reverse prejudice, reverse stereotyping, never mind whether they are right or wrong--they are wrong--just be aware that they are acids poored upon the connections that bind a democratic society. [...] Maybe you cannot bring everybody along with you. But you still must try--for your own sake, as well as theirs.”
― David Frum, Trumpocalypse: Restoring American Democracy

“Work takes all the time and with it one has no leisure for the republic and his friends.”
― Paul Lafargue, The Right to Be Lazy

“It may seem that only those already in power are the ones with the ability to make change, but democracy is a participation sport, and if we all take on one small part, we can make big changes.”
― Sami Sage, Democracy in Retrograde: How to Make Changes Big and Small in Our Country and in Our Lives

“Involvement in the life of the community was a vital part of every citizen's daily life; preparing the next generation for such a civic life was the schools' primary mission.”
― Michael Rebell

“Leadership, Boal concluded, is the art of facilitating imaginative interventions by the greatest possible number...”
― Doris Sommer, The Work of Art in the World: Civic Agency and Public Humanities

“We should worry again about the connection between play-starved education and eroded mechanisms for political debate, if worry can lead beyond deadlocks. Too often, academic essays pursue analysis and critique but stop short of speculation about remedies, as if intellectual work excluded an element of creativity. In fact, essays that remain risk-averse miss the potential of the genre to "assay," or try out, ideas.”
― Doris Sommer, The Work of Art in the World: Civic Agency and Public Humanities

“The more formal educated you have, the more you can distinguish between truth and fiction. In other words, individuals who are more educated are less likely to be brainwashed from negative influence.”
― Saaif Alam

“An understanding of media’s effects constitutes a civil defense against media fallout”
― Marshall McLuhan

“Honor He Wrote Sonnet 56

It's the citizens’ duty to make a nation nonpartisan,
Government is meant to serve as powerless figurehead.
All my hopes lie in the hands of accountable citizens,
A good politician acts a citizen, not political dunderhead.
So no more procrastination with the curation of society,
No more playing hooky in the school of life and sanity.
Be the politician that you seek in the sewers of state,
Not by law but by an indefatigable accountability.
Democracy means rule of the people, not sleep of people,
Yet that's what it means to people 'n politicians alike.
But shhh, nobody is supposed to admit any of it in public,
For discretion is the better part of a society of sleeping mice.
Let sleeping slime sleep, if you are human, take charge now.
Dream with your eyes open and keep your democracy vow.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Honor He Wrote: 100 Sonnets For Humans Not Vegetables

“Honor He Wrote Sonnet 93

Citizen lover is citizen justice,
All others are citizens of malice.
Love begets justice, whereas,
Judgment produces more malice.
All think, justice is an independent force,
But, justice is simply a descendant of love.
Where there is love, justice prevails,
Otherwise, there's just talk of justice 'n love.
Pledge allegiance to no judgment by intellect,
But only to love and love alone, my friend.
Where there is a place for love,
There is place for everything else.
Once a person has realized love untaintable,
They've achieved everything celebratable.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Honor He Wrote: 100 Sonnets For Humans Not Vegetables

“Free speech is a phenomenon of human society, hate speech is an act of stoneage barbarians.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Honor He Wrote: 100 Sonnets For Humans Not Vegetables

“Justice begins with a just civilian, not a politician.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Honor He Wrote: 100 Sonnets For Humans Not Vegetables

“The government's job is not to govern but listen, and the citizen's duty is to speak as beings nonpartisan.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Honor He Wrote: 100 Sonnets For Humans Not Vegetables

“Fetch those cables from your spinal cord, and electrify this dampened world!”
― Abhijit Naskar, High Voltage Habib: Gospel of Undoctrination

“here in North Carolina, Republicans launched a specific attack on civics education because they don’t want an educated and engaged and informed population, because those are the kinds of people that hold people accountable. Right?

(Interview with Truthout)”
― Bree Newsome Bass

“In a civilized society we are all king, we are all policymaker. The world advances when we advance as its fervent keeper.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Making Britain Civilized: How to Gain Readmission to The Human Race

“If we fail, then freedom fails.”
― John F. Kennedy

“Everybody is a terrorist, till you see the reformist. Bring that reformer out my friend, in its full glory and ferociousness. Once you do, every time a politician or fundamentalist even dreams of doing something inhuman, a voice of caution will strike them from inside - don't you dare, kid - or else, they’ll bring hell down on you - then you’ll have neither the seat, nor the ass to sit on it!”
― Abhijit Naskar, Mucize Misafir Merhaba: The Peace Testament

“When the civilians remember their responsibility, politicians will forget which party they belong to, so will their next of kin. And at the slightest urge for exploitation, a voice of caution will ring in their head - don't you dare, kid - or else, you’ll have neither the seat nor the ass to sit on it!”
― Abhijit Naskar, Corazon Calamidad: Obedient to None, Oppressive to None

“Being taught to avoid talking about politics and religion has led to a lack of understanding of politics and religion. What we should have been taught was how to have a civil conversation about a difficult topic.”
― unknown author

“There's a small handful of very wealthy and powerful people who actively strategize and spend a lot of money (numbers with multiple commas) to make sure that you ignore politics and neglect your privileges that come with being an American citizen.”
― Emily Amick, Democracy in Retrograde: How to Make Changes Big and Small in Our Country and in Our Lives

“Civility is the everyday ethic of honoring the dignity of others as we would wish our own to be honored—an active commitment to justice, respect, and mutual responsibility in shared civic life.”
― Diane Kalen-Sukra

“Democracy commits us to value, preserve and uphold the rights, dignity, and well-being of all, including our neighbors, those who are different than us, those with whom we disagree, as well as future generations.”
― Diane Kalen-Sukra, Save Your City: How Toxic Culture Kills Community & What to Do About It

“When it comes to making self-soothing choices about how to engage, this means going to speaking events where you are empowered to make change, where you are inspired by the group and activities rather than drained. Finding comfortable spaces with like-minded people is a way to feel less alone in your world-views and supported by community.”
― Sami Sage, Democracy in Retrograde: How to Make Changes Big and Small in Our Country and in Our Lives