Representatives Quotes - Page 15

• Representative government has broken down. Our politicians represent not the people who vote for them but the commercial interests who finance their election campaigns. We have the best politicians that money can buy.

  Edward Abbey

  Government, People, Broken

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.22, RosettaBooks

  21 Copy quote

  Show source

• That instability is inherent in the nature of popular governments, I think very disputable … A representative democracy, where the right of election is well secured and regulated & the exercise of the legislature, executive, and judiciary authorities, is vested in select persons, chosen really and not nominally by the people, will in my opinion be most likely to be happy, regular and durable.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Exercise, Thinking, Government

  7 Copy quote

• There are whole precincts of voters in this country whose united intelligence does not equal that of one representative American woman.

  Carrie Chapman Catt

  Country, Usa, Doe

  15 Copy quote

• In passing, we should here recognize the difficulties presented by the idea of 'fit' and 'unfit.' Who is to decide this question? The grosser, the more obvious, the undeniably feeble-minded should, indeed, not only be discouraged but prevented from propagating their kind. But among the writings of the representative Eugenists [sic], one cannot ignore the distinct middle-class bias that prevails.

  Margaret Sanger

  Writing, Class, Ideas

  Margaret Sanger, Michael W. Perry, H. G. Wells (2003). “The Pivot of Civilization in Historical Perspective: The Birth Control Classic”, p.369, Inkling Books

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• We, the lineal representatives of the successful enactors of one scene of slaughter after another, must, whatever more pacific virtues we may also possess, still carry about with us, ready at any moment to burst into flame, the smoldering and sinister traits of character by means of which they lived through so many massacres, harming others, but themselves unharmed.

  William James

  Character, Mean, Successful

  William James (1918). “The Principles of Psychology, Vol. 2”, p.410, Courier Corporation

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• Instead of the function of governing, for which it is radically unfit, the proper office of a representative assembly is to watch and control the government.

  John Stuart Mill

  Government, Office, Watches

  Considerations on Representative Government ch. 5 (1861)

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• And as for the Jews, who since the emancipation of their sect have everywhere put themselves, at least in the person of their eminent representatives, at the head of the counter-revolution -- what awaits them?

  Karl Marx

  Revolution, Jew, Emancipation

  Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels (1975). “Karl Marx, Frederick Engels: collected works”, Intl Pub

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• I have talked with representatives from the two other parties who said they had no problem with the offer either.

  Abhisit Vejjajiva

  Party, Two, Problem

  "Thai opposition views new election" by Ram Ramgopal, edition.cnn.com. April 4, 2006.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• But I am pro-life and will intend, if I’m president of the United States, to encourage pro-life policies. [...] And I hope to appoint justices to the Supreme Court that will follow the law and the constitution. And it would be my preference that they reverse Roe v. Wade and therefore they return to the people and their elected representatives the decisions with regards to this important issue.

  Mitt Romney

  Law, Issues, People

  "Meet the Press" with David Gregory, www.nbcnews.com.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Ruling elders are declared to be the representatives of the people.

  Charles Hodge

  People, Ruling, Elders

  Charles Hodge (1855). “What is Presbyterianism?: An Address Delivered Before the Presbyterian Historical Society at Their Anniversary Meeting in Philadelphia, on Tuesday Evening, May 1, 1855”, p.16

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• English girls' schools today providing the higher education are, so far as my knowledge goes, worthily representative of that astonishing rise in the intellectual standards of women which has taken place in the last half-century.

  Mary Augusta Ward

  Girl, Education, Taken

  Mary Augusta Ward (2002). “Marcella”, p.552, Broadview Press

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• A benefactor is a representative of God.

  Benjamin Whichcote

  Inspiring, Charity, Benefactors

  Benjamin Whichcote (1753). “Moral and religious aphorisms collected from the manuscript papers of the reverend and learned Doctor Whichcote; and published in 1703, by Dr. Jeffery. Now re-published, with very large additions, ... by Samuel Salter, ... To which are added, Eight letter”, p.90

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is too much sour grapes for my taste in the present American attitude. The time to denounce the bankers was when we were all feeding off their gold plate; not now! At present they have not only my sympathy but my preference. They are the last representatives of our native industries.

  Edith Wharton

  Sympathy, Attitude, Gold

  52 Copy quote

• The natural tendency of representative government, as of modern civilisation, is towards collective mediocrity: and this tendency is increased by all reductions and extensions of the franchise, their effect being to place the principal power in the hands of classes more and more below the highest level of instruction in the community.

  John Stuart Mill

  Government, Hands, Class

  John Stuart Mill (2016). “Considerations on Representative Government”, p.196, John Stuart Mill

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• With all of the talk about polling and demographics, I think too many people have lost touch with the human and moral crisis of deportations. Every day, roughly 1,000 people are deported because the Republican leadership of the House of Representatives is denying the majority of the US Congress a chance to vote on citizenship. I will be arrested today because the labor movement stands with the families tragically ripped apart by John Boehner and the House Republicans’ embrace of a broken immigration system.

  Arlene Holt Baker

  Thinking, People, Broken

  12 Copy quote

• And this indifference is still very much present in modern South Africa. Just listen to Nobel Prize winner Nadine Gordimer - a representative of the British elite in this country: Afrikaner women are lower than rats, closer related to plants, just fit enough to be raped in an act of genus preservation.

  Nadine Gordimer

  Country, Rats, Winner

  4 Copy quote

• I enter negotiations with Chairman Arafat, the leader of the PLO, the representative of the Palestinian people, with the purpose to have coexistence between our two entities, Israel as a Jewish state and Palestinian state, entity, next to us, living in peace.

  Yitzhak Rabin

  Israel, Two, People

  38 Copy quote

• The public affairs of the union are spread throughout a very extensive region, and are extremely diversified by the local affairs connected with them, and can with difficulty be learnt in any other place, than in the central councils, to which a knowledge of them will be brought by the representatives of every part of the empire. Yet some knowledge of the affairs, and even of the laws of all the states, ought to be possessed by the members from each of the states.

  James Madison

  Law, Federalism, Unions

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2012). “Selected Federalist Papers”, p.127, Courier Corporation

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• We established however some, although not all its [self-government] important principles . The constitutions of most of our States assert, that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves, in all cases to which they think themselves competent, (as in electing their functionaries executive and legislative, and deciding by a jury of themselves, in all judiciary cases in which any fact is involved,) or they may act by representatives, freely and equally chosen; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Exercise, Thinking, Government

  Thomas Jefferson, Joyce Appleby, Terence Ball (1999). “Jefferson: Political Writings”, p.384, Cambridge University Press

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Reason, on the contrary, assures us, that as in so great a number, a fit representative would be most likely to be found, so the choice would be less likely to be diverted from him, by the intrigues of the ambitious, or the bribes of the rich.

  James Madison

  Numbers, Choices, Ambitious

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2015). “The Federalist Papers: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution”, p.282, Coventry House Publishing

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The people can never willfully betray their own interests: But they may possibly be betrayed by the representatives of the people; and the danger will be evidently greater where the whole legislative trust is lodged in the hands of one body of men, than where the concurrence of separate and dissimilar bodies is required in every public act.

  James Madison

  Men, Hands, People

  James Madison, John Jay (1847). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.255

  56 Copy quote

  Show source

• The representatives of the people, in a popular assembly, seem sometimes to fancy that they are the people themselves, and betray strong symptoms of impatience and disgust at the least sign of opposition from any other quarter; as if the exercise of its rights, by either the executive or judiciary, were a breach of their privilege and an outrage to their dignity.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Strong, Exercise, Rights

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2015). “The Federalist Papers: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution”, p.351, Coventry House Publishing

  42 Copy quote

  Show source

• It may well happen that the public voice, pronounced by the representatives of the people, will be more constant to the public good than if pronounced by the people themselves.

  James Madison

  Voice, People, Democracy

  "Federalist No. 10. The Same Subject Continued: The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection" by James Madison, www.congress.gov. November 23, 1787.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Hitherto my observations have only aimed at a vindication of the provision in question, on the ground of theoretic propriety . . . . But there remains to be mentioned a positive advantage . . . I allude to the circumstance of uniformity in the time of elections for the House of Representatives. It is more than possible, that this uniformity may be found by experience to be of great importance to the public welfare; both as a security against the perpetuation of the same spirit in the body; and as a cure for the diseases of faction.

  Alexander Hamilton

  House, Public Opinion, Body

  6 Copy quote

• What is to be the consequence, in case the Congress shall misconstrue this part [the necessary and proper clause] of the Constitution and exercise powers not warranted by its true meaning, I answer the same as if they should misconstrue or enlarge any other power vested in them . . . the success of the usurpation will depend on the executive and judiciary departments, which are to expound and give effect to the legislative acts; and in a last resort a remedy must be obtained from the people, who can by the elections of more faithful representatives, annul the acts of the usurpers.

  James Madison

  Exercise, People, Giving

  53 Copy quote