Good Citizenship Quotes

• Good citizenship and defending democracy means living up to the ideals and values that make this country great.

  Ronald Reagan

  Country, Character, Mean

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• Finally, cooking is good citizenship. It's the only way to get serious about putting locally raised foods into your diet, which keeps farmlands healthy and grocery money in the neighborhood.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Animal, Vegetables, Miracle

  Barbara Kingsolver (2010). “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: Our Year of Seasonal Eating”, p.130, Faber & Faber

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• At the 1894 ALA conference it was fairly well agreed that the primary goal of the public library must be to teach good citizenship. Libraries recognized that such "Americanization" could be achieved through literacy. Thus, teaching immigrants to read was not just a benefit in and of itself; literacy would also serve the interests of democracy.

  Kevin Mattson

  Teaching, Goal, Democracy

  52 Copy quote
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  This country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a good place for all of us to live in.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Inspiring, Country, 4th Of July

  Theodore Roosevelt, Paul H. Jeffers (1998). “The Bully Pulpit: A Teddy Roosevelt Book of Quotations”, p.63, Taylor Trade Publications

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• The test of good citizenship is loyalty to country.

  Bainbridge Colby

  Loyalty, Country, Tests

  32 Copy quote

• 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.

  Kofi Annan

  Cutting, People, Democracy

  52 Copy quote

• The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.

  Thomas Paine

  Inspirational, Life, Wisdom

  313 Copy quote

• 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.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Military, Citizens, Weight

  Speech, New York, N.Y., 11 Nov. 1902

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• My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.

  John F. Kennedy

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Country

  Inaugural Address, 20 Jan. 1961

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• The real breeders of discontent and alien doctrines of government and philosophies subversive of good citizenship are such as these who take the law into their own hands.

  John L. Lewis

  Philosophy, Real, Government

  Labor and the Nation, delivered 3 September 1937 in Washington D.C.

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• 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.

  Isaiah Bowman

  Strength, Education, Respect

  46 Copy quote

• It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen.

  Aristotle

  Motivation, Character, Patriotic

  26 Copy quote

• Bad officials are the ones elected by good citizens who do not vote.

  George Jean Nathan

  Freedom, Democracies Have, Political

  99 Copy quote

• Citizenship consists in the service of the country.

  Jawaharlal Nehru

  Country, India, Republic

  Jawaharlal Nehru (1949). “Speeches”

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• I’d rather see the United States as a beacon of Good Work and Good Citizenship, rather than as #1 on some international educational measurement.

  Howard Gardner

  Educational, United States, Measurement

  "Living Legends: An Interview With Howard Gardner". Interview with Matthew Lynch, Ed.D., www.huffingtonpost.com. January 11, 2012.

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• 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.

  Andrew Jackson

  Life, Country, 4th Of July

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

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• 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.

  Kofi Annan

  Cutting, People, Youth

  "Young People, the Change Makers!" by Marsida Bandilli, www.huffingtonpost.com. August 17, 2015.

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• Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens.

  Daniel Webster

  Christian, Men, Citizens

  Daniel Webster (1830). “Speeches and Forensic Arguments”, p.53

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• There is no patent recipe for getting good citizenship. You get it by applying the old, old rules of decent conduct, the rules in accordance with which decent men have had to shape their lives from the beginning .. fundamental precepts, put forth in the Bible and embodied consciously or unconsciously in the code of morals of every great and successful nation from antiquity to modern times.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Successful, Men, Patents

  7 Copy quote

• Good government is no substitute for self-government.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Government, Self, Citizenship

  Mahatma Gandhi (2014). “Freedom's Battle: Being a Comprehensive Collection of Writings and Speeches on the Present Situation”, p.74, The Floating Press

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• 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. For happily the government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction - to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens.

  George Washington

  Patriotic, Exercise, Rights

  George Washington, John Clement Fitzpatrick, David Maydole Matteson (1792). “The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799”, p.93

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• Our immigration system is a broken system that needs to be fixed. We need reform that provides hardworking people of good character with a real path towards citizenship.

  Joe Baca

  Real, Character, People

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• My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.

  Thomas Paine

  Inspirational, Life, Inspiring

  The Rights of Man pt. 2, ch. 5 (1792)

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• 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.

  George Washington

  Exercise, Rights, Class

  George Washington, John Clement Fitzpatrick, David Maydole Matteson (1792). “The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799”, p.93

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• ... happily the Government of the United States... gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.

  George Washington

  Atheist, Government, Giving

  Letter to Hebrew congregation of Newport, R.I., 17 Aug. 1790

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