Every good citizen makes his country's honor his own, and cherishes it not only as precious but as sacred. He is willing to risk his life in its defense and its conscious that he gains protection while he gives it.
It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen.
The first requisite of a good citizen in this republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his own weight.
Bad officials are the ones elected by good citizens who do not vote.
My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.
No one is born a good citizen; no nation is born a democracy. Rather, both are processes that continue to evolve over a lifetime. Young people must be included from birth. A society that cuts off from its youth severs its lifeline.
Citizenship comes first today in our crowded world... No man can enjoy the privileges of education and thereafter with a clear conscience break his contract with society. To respect that contract is to be mature, to strengthen it is to be a good citizen, to do more than your share under it is noble.
Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens.
Young people must be included from birth. A society that cuts itself off from its youth severs its lifeline; it is condemned to bleed to death.
And let me tell you, you boys of America, that there is no higher inspiration to any man to be a good man, a good citizen, and a good son, brother, or father, than the knowledge that you come from honest blood.
The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.
It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights.
... happily the Government of the United States... gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.
No free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people, but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue.
Ants are good citizens: they place group interests first.
You will ever remember that all the end of study is to make you a good man and a useful citizen.
It is when a people forget God, that tyrants forge their chains.
A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the highest virtues of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means.
I don't want to run for governor, but I don't think anyone should put public service out of the question because that's not what a good citizen does.
I think most of us are raised with preconceived notions of the choices we're supposed to make.
or simply:
