Self Government Quotes

“Not being able to govern events, I govern myself”
― Michel de Montaigne

“Our greatest duty to our children is to love them first.  Secondly, it is to teach them.  Not to frighten, force, or intimidate our children into submission, but to effectively teach them so that they have the knowledge and tools to govern themselves.”
― Richelle E. Goodrich, Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, & Grumblings for Every Day of the Year

“...our children must learn...to face full responsibility for their actions, to make their own choices and cope with the results...the whole democratic system...depends upon it. For our system is founded on self-government, which is untenable if the individuals who make up the system are unable to govern themselves.”
― Eleanor Roosevelt

“Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.”
― Thomas Jefferson

“To try to give our infatuation a higher place than Truth is a sign of inherent slavishness. Where our minds are free we find ourselves lost. Our moribund vitality must have for its rider either some fantasy, or someone in authority, or a sanction from the pundits, in order to make it move. So long as we are
impervious to truth and have to be moved by some hypnotic stimulus, we must know that we lack the capacity for self- government. Whatever may be our condition, we shall either need some imaginary ghost or some actual medicine-man to terrorize over us.”
― Rabindranath Tagore, The Home and the World

“Rules, laws and codes become obsolete among the self-governed.”
― T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph over Death and Conscious Encounters With the Divine Presence

“Americans became so thoroughly democratic that much of the period's political activity, beginning with the Constitution, was diverted to finding means and devices to tame that democracy.”
― Gordon S. Wood, Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815

“Legalize the right to choose wrong.
Legalize individual liberty.”
― A.E. Samaan

“Voting is vitally important, even if an individual vote doesn’t sway a particular election one way or another. It is the only way that “We the People” self-govern. The ability to self-govern is a privilege and a gift--one that we honor by showing up at the ballot booth, even if your vote doesn’t “matter” in altering a particular race. It’s sometimes hard for Americans to fathom that not everyone on the planet enjoys the privilege of self-government. If we want to keep that privilege, we need to exercise it.”
― Kim Wehle, What You Need to Know About Voting—and Why

“To Lincoln's mind, the battle to save the Union contained an even larger purpose than ending slavery, which was after all sanctioned by the very Constitution he was sworn to uphold. "I consider the central idea pervading this struggle," he told Hay in early May, "is the necessity that is upon us, of proving that popular government is not an absurdity. We must settle this question now, whether in a free government the minority have the right to break up the government whenever they choose. If we fail it will go far to prove the incapability of the people to govern themselves.”
― Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

“Let us all, like our founding fathers, pledge our own lives, our fortunes, our sacred honor, to the cause of liberty and self-government. So that we may continue to have the freedom to follow our conscience, to build our lives, and to live in peace.”
― Kristi Noem, Not My First Rodeo: Lessons from the Heartland

“Voting is vitally important, even if an individual vote doesn’t sway a particular election one way or another. It is the only way that “We the People” self-govern. The ability to self-govern is a privilege and a gift – one that we honor by showing up at the ballot booth, even if your vote doesn’t “matter” in altering a particular race. It’s sometimes hard for Americans to fathom that not everyone on the planet enjoys the privilege of self-government. If we want to keep that privilege, we need to exercise it.”
― Kim Wehle, What You Need to Know About Voting—and Why

“Freedom comes to those who don't apply for it.”
― T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph over Death and Conscious Encounters With the Divine Presence

“Self-government" is a marriage of two terms, expressible mathematically as a ratio (self-government). The first thing we should observe about this relationship is that the first term is always static while the second is potentially infinite. The smaller the second term, which is to say, the fewer are the "others" that go to make up the apparatus of government, which within democracy is theoretically everyone, the more tolerable we find the arrangement. But as the second term approaches infinity, the more we feel our isolated "self' dissolving into insignificance. The wider the circumference of the "self-government," the smaller the share of each self in the governing of the selves which comprise it. We begin to understand that what was flattering in theory can become terrifying in practice.”
― Daniel Schwindt, The Case Against the Modern World: A Crash Course in Traditionalist Thought

“The Massachusetts constitution states that "Wisdom and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of people [are] necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties." It was the "duty" of the government, [John] Adams wrote, to educate everybody.

The Northwest Ordinance reads, "Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and means of education shall be forever encouraged."

These are strong, clear declarations of faith in education as the bulwark of freedom.

For self-government to work, the people must be educated.”
― David McCullough, The American Spirit: Who We Are and What We Stand For