Republic Quotes - Page 8

• But I confess that "my mind to me a kingdom is" - not! Rather it is a fantastical republic, daily troubled by more revolutions than ever occurred in South America.

  Lafcadio Hearn

  America, Mind, Kingdoms

  Lafcadio Hearn (2012). “Gleanings in Buddha-Fields (Annotated Edition)”, p.62, Jazzybee Verlag

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• We're an ignorant nation right now. We're not really capable, I do not think, the majority of our people, of making the decisions that have to be made at election time and particularly in the selection of their legislatures and their Congress and the presidency, of course. I don't think we're bright enough to do the job that would preserve our democracy, our republic. I think we're in serious danger.

  Walter Cronkite

  Anchorman, Jobs, Thinking

  "Dolly Parton's Anniversary; Walter Cronkite on Peter Jennings". "Larry King Live", edition.cnn.com. September 30, 2005.

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• Liberals are like dogs: The liberal holds that he is true to the republic when he is true to himself. (It may not be as cozy an attitude as it sounds.) He greets with enthusiasm the fact of the journey, as a dog greets a man's invitation to take a walk. And he acts in the dog's way too, swinging wide, racing ahead, doubling back, covering many miles of territory that the man never traverses, all in the spirit of inquiry and the zest for truth. He leaves a crazy trail, but he ranges far beyond the genteel old party he walks with and he is usually in a better position to discover a skunk.

  E. B. White

  Dog, Attitude, Crazy

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• It is part of our "Mormon" theology that the Constitution of the United States was divinely inspired; that our Republic came into existence through wise men raised up for that very purpose. We believe it is the duty of the members of the Church to see that this Republic is not subverted either by any sudden or constant erosion of those principles which gave this Nation its birth.

  David O. McKay

  Wise, Believe, Men

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• You know better than I that in a Republic talent is always suspect. A man attains an elevated position only when his mediocrity prevents him from being a threat to others. And for this reason a democracy is never governed by the most competent, but rather by those whose insignificance will not jeopardize anyone else's self-esteem.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Self Esteem, Men, Democracy

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• As the observance of divine institutions is the cause of the greatness of republics, so the disregard of them produces their ruin; for where the fear of God is wanting, there the country will come to ruin, unless it be sustained the fear of the prince, which temporarily supply the want of religion.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Country, Greatness, Want

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• A nation can be one or the other, a democracy or an imperialist, but it can't be both. If it sticks to imperialism, it will, like the old Roman Republic, on which so much of our system was modeled, like the old Roman Republic, it will lose its democracy to a domestic dictatorship.

  Chalmers Johnson

  Democracy, Sticks, Imperialism

  "Chalmers Johnson: 'Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic'". "Democracy Now!" with Amy Goodman, www.democracynow.org. February 27, 2007.

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• Washington, one feels in Washington, is the spoiled child of the republic.

  Montgomery Schuyler

  Children, Spoiled, Feels

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• Executive power is exercised by the President of the Governing Board who, with the title of President of the Republic of Chile, administers the state and is the Supreme Chief of the Nation.

  Augusto Pinochet

  President, Titles, Boards

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• Some members of Congress will claim that the federal government needs the power to monitor Americans in order to allow the government to operate more efficiently. I would remind my colleagues that, in a constitutional republic, the people are never asked to sacrifice their liberties to make the jobs of government officials easier.

  Ron Paul

  Jobs, Sacrifice, Government

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• Players from the Dominican Republic have a history of not playing well in cold weather.... The ball hurts their hands when they make contact.

  Grady Little

  Hurt, Player, Hands

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• But I am mistaken in speaking of a Christian republic; the terms are mutually exclusive. Christianity preaches only servitude and dependence. Its spirit is so favorable to tyranny that it always profits by such a regime. True Christians are made to be slaves, and they know it and do not much mind; this short life counts for too little in their eyes.

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Christian, Short Life, Eye

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau, G. D. H. Cole (2003). “On the Social Contract”, p.95, Courier Corporation

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• When a government lasts a long while, it deteriorates by insensible degrees. Republics end through luxury, monarchies through poverty.

  Baron de Montesquieu

  Luxury, Government, Long

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• The States are nations.

  Daniel Webster

  Independence, States, Sovereignty

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• If the States were not left to leave the Union when their rights were interfered with, the government would have been National, but the Convention refused to baptize it by that name.

  Daniel Webster

  Rights, Government, Law

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• If Aristotle, Livy, and Harrington knew what a republic was, the British constitution is much more like a republic than an empire. They define a republic to be a government of laws, and not of men. If this definition is just, the British constitution is nothing more or less than a republic, in which the king is first magistrate. This office being hereditary, and being possessed of such ample and splendid prerogatives, is no objection to the government's being a republic, as long as it is bound by fixed laws, which the people have a voice in making, and a right to defend.

  John Adams

  Kings, Men, Voice

  John Adams (2015). “The Works of John Adams Vol. 4: Novanglus, Thoughts on Government, Defence of the Constitution I”, p.90, Jazzybee Verlag

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• Leadership from the Oval Office - and sustained, effective use of the bully pulpit - is essential to getting the American people off their too-pampered butts and into meeting successfully the long-haul challenges of fixing major problems in the very fabric of our republic's life, both domestically and in our international relations.

  Lawrence Wilkerson

  Office, Long, People

  Interview with Daniel Schulman, www.motherjones.com. September/October 2008.

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• The rapid rise of the People's Republic of China as a military and economic power is challenging the status quo.

  Dan Quayle

  Military, People, Challenges

  Source: www.leadersmag.com

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• If there ever is to be a republic of every village in India, then I claim verity for my picture in which the last is equal to the first or, in other words, no one is to be the first and none the last.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  India, Village, Lasts

  Mahatma Gandhi, Dennis Dalton (1995). “Gandhi: Selected Political Writings”, p.150, Hackett Publishing

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• I spoke on the phone with President Rouhani of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The two of us discussed our ongoing efforts to reach an agreement over Iran's nuclear program. While there will surely be important obstacles to moving forward and success is by no means guaranteed, I believe we can reach a comprehensive solution.

  Barack Obama

  Moving, Islamic, Believe

  Source: www.foxnews.com

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• No single Tibetan dreaming return of previous sort of backwardness, therefore as far as economy development is concerned, Tibet remain within the People's Republic of China, we will get greater benefit.

  Dalai Lama

  Dream, People, Development

  Source: www.sbs.com.au

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• Bismarck had cunningly taught the parties not to aim at national appeal but to represent interests. They remained class or sectional pressure-groups under the Republic. This was fatal, for it made the party system, and with it democratic parliamentarianism, seem a divisive rather than a unifying factor. Worse: it meant the parties never produced a leader who appealed beyond the narrow limits of his own following.

  Paul Johnson

  Party, Class, Pressure Groups

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• Tacitus appears to have been as great an enthusiast as Petrarch for the revival of the republic and universal empire. He has exerted the vengeance of history upon the emperors, but has veiled the conspiracies against them, and the incorrigible corruption of the people which probably provoked their most atrocious cruelties. Tyranny can scarcely be practised upon a virtuous and wise people.

  John Adams

  Wise, People, Empires

  John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1851). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.422

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• The Republic-of-China - back in the Olympic Games for the first time

  David Coleman

  Inspirational, Funny, Games

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• There is nothing puzzling ... about America's gratuitously aggressive foreign policy or about the oligarchs' successful efforts to drag the Republic into five wars. What an aggressive foreign policy accomplishes by slow degrees, a state of war accomplishes in a trice. Overnight [war] kills reform, overnight it transforms insurgents into traitors and the Republic into an imperiled realm. Overnight it strangles free politics, distracts and overawes the citizenry. Overnight it blasts public hope.

  Walter Karp

  War, Successful, America

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