Republic Quotes - Page 11

• Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution of your country and the government established under it. Leave evils which exist in some parts of the country, but which are beyond your control, to the all-wise direction of an over-ruling Providence. Perform those duties which are present, plain and positive. Respect the laws of your country.

  Daniel Webster

  Government, Years, America

  Letter to Dr. William B. Gooch of West Dennis, Massachusetts, in 1851. The Bay State Monthly, 1898.

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• I came to realize that one single human being, comprehended in his depth, who gives generously from the treasures of his heart, bestows on us more riches than Caesar or Alexander could ever conquer. Here is our kingdom, the best of monarchies, the best republic. Here is our garden, our happiness.

  Ernst Junger

  Heart, Garden, Giving

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• We have to build the Republic of Heaven where we are, because for us there is no elsewhere.

  Philip Pullman

  Heaven, His Dark Materials, Elsewhere

  Philip Pullman (2007). “The Amber Spyglass”, Knopf Books for Young Readers

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• It was reported in the left-wing press in the late 1930s that the Texas Company (Texaco), headed by the Nazi sympathizer Torkild Rieber, diverted its oil shipments from the Republic, with which it had contracts, to [Francisco] Franco.

  Noam Chomsky

  Texas, Wings, Oil

  Source: thehumanist.com

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• There's a strong nativist tradition - saying, "we have to protect ourselves" - that comes from the founding of the country. If you read Benjamin Franklin, who was one of the leading figures of the Enlightenment in the United States and the most distinguished representative of the movement here, he actually advised that the newly founded republic should block Germans and Swedes because they were too "swarthy" - dark.

  Noam Chomsky

  Country, Strong, Block

  Source: thehumanist.com

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• ...when the laws have ceased to be executed, as this can only come from the corruption of the republic, the state is already lost.

  Baron de Montesquieu

  Law, Corruption, Lost

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• Faust complained about having two souls in his breast, but I harbor a whole crowd of them and they quarrel. It is like being in a republic.

  Otto von Bismarck

  Two, Soul, Crowds

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• But in Republics there is a stronger vitality, a fiercer hatred, a keener thirst for revenge. The memory of their former freedom will not let them rest; so that the safest course is either to destroy them, or to go and live in them.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Memories, Revenge, Hatred

  Niccolo Machiavelli, Thomas Moore (2010). “Machiavelli, More & Luther”, p.19, Cosimo, Inc.

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• The appeal of reading, she thought, lay in its indifference: there was something undeferring about literature. Books did not care who was reading them or whether one read them or not. All readers were equal, herself included. Literature, she thought, is a commonwealth; letters a republic.

  Alan Bennett

  Reading, Book, Literature

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• When a man begins to feel that he is the only one who can lead in this republic, he is guilty of treason to the spirit of our institutions.

  Calvin Coolidge

  Leadership, Men, Spirit

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• We know of no spectacle more ridiculous—or more contemptible—than that of the religious reactionaries who dare to re-write the history of our republic. Or who try to do so. Is it possible that, in their vanity and stupidity, they suppose that they can erase the name of Thomas Jefferson and replace it with the name of some faith-based mediocrity whose name is already obscure? If so, we cheerfully resolve to mock them, and to give them the lie in their teeth.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Religious, Lying, Writing

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• The death-knell of the republic had rung as soon as the active power became lodged in the hands of those who sought, not to do justice to all citizens, rich and poor alike, but to stand for one special class and for its interests as opposed to the interests of others.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Patriotic, Hands, Class

  Theodore Roosevelt (1904). “Addresses and Presidential Messages of Theodore Roosevelt, 1902-1904”

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• This country, the Republic of Indonesia, does not belong to any group, nor to any religion, nor to any ethnic group, nor to any group with customs and traditions, but the property of all of us from Sabang to Merauke!

  Sukarno

  Country, Groups, Doe

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• Saeed quickly found employment at a Banana Republic, where he would sell to urban sophisticates the black turtleneck of the season, in a shop whose name was synonymous with colonial exploitation and the rapacious ruin of the third world.

  Kiran Desai

  Names, Black, Employment

  Kiran Desai (2007). “The Inheritance of Loss”, p.112, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• None of our republics would be anything if we weren't all together; but we have to create our own history - history of United Yugoslavia, also in the future.

  Josip Broz Tito

  Yugoslavia, Together, Would Be

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• During the war, a battle was fought here, not only for the creation of a new Yugoslavia, but also a battle for Bosnia and Herzegovina as a sovereign republic. To some generals and leaders their position on this was not quite clear. I never once doubted my stance on Bosnia. I always said that Bosnia and Herzegovina cannot belong to this or that, only to the people that lived there since the beginning of time.

  Josip Broz Tito

  War, Yugoslavia, People

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• It might interest you that just as the U.S. was ramping up its involvement in Vietnam, LBJ launched an illegal invasion of the Dominican Republic (April 28, 1965). (Santo Domingo was Iraq before Iraq was Iraq.)

  Junot Diaz

  Iraq, Vietnam, Invasion

  Junot Diaz (2008). “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao”, p.4, Faber & Faber

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• After the signing of the Constitution, Benjamin Franklin was asked by a woman on the street, "What have you given us, sir?" Franklin Responded, "A Republic, if you can keep it." A critical moment in history has come; our Republic is in jeopardy. Can we keep it? If the answer to that question, as I fear, is "no," then we have no one to blame but ourselves.

  Glenn Beck

  Critical Moments, Answers, Constitution

  Glenn Beck (2009). “Glenn Beck's Common Sense: The Case Against an Ouf-of-Control Government, Inspired by Thomas Paine”, p.10, Simon and Schuster

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• No class or group or party in Germany could escape its share of responsibility for the abandonment of the democratic Republic and the advent of Adolf Hitler. The cardinal error of the Germans who opposed Nazism was their failure to unite against it.

  William L. Shirer

  Party, Responsibility, Errors

  William L. Shirer, Ron Rosenbaum (2011). “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany”, p.185, Simon and Schuster

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• If your Soviet neighbor is trying to set fire to your house, you can't be worrying about the Arab down the block. If suddenly it's the Arab in your backyard , you can't be worrying about the People's Republic of China and if one day the ChiComs show up at your front door with an eviction notice in one hand and a Molotov cocktail in the other, then the last thing you're going do is look over his shoulder for a walking corpse.

  Max Brooks

  Block, Fire, Doors

  Max Brooks (2006). “World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War”, p.47, Broadway Books

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• But are we even capable of maintaining a Republic anymore? Are there enough citizens willing to do the hard work that self-rule requires, or have we become a people who would rather be cared for, fed, clothed, housed, and told what's best for us by a parentlike state? Unfortunately, the evidence suggests the latter.

  Glenn Beck

  Hard Work, Self, People

  Glenn Beck (2009). “Glenn Beck's Common Sense: The Case Against an Ouf-of-Control Government, Inspired by Thomas Paine”, p.13, Simon and Schuster

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• Stay here til I come to fetch you." I no longer recognize you in the Republic of Joy," I loftily informed him. "Our diplomatic ties are severed." Unsever them," he growled, "or the Country of Raphael will be forced to declare your republic a protectorate." Dictator," I muttered. For life," he agreed.

  Katie MacAlister

  Country, Ties, Joy

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• For anyone inclined to caricature environmental history as 'environmental determinism,' the contrasting histories of the Dominican Republic and Haiti provide a useful antidote. Yes, environmental problems do constrain human societies, but the societies' responses also make a difference.

  Jared Diamond

  Differences, Environmental, Making A Difference

  Jared Diamond (2011). “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed: Revised Edition”, p.308, Penguin

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• You should have taken me with you," I whisper to him. Then I lean my head against his and begin to cry. In my mind, I make a silent promise to my brother's killer. I will hunt you down. I will scour the streets of Los Angeles for you. Search every street in the Republic if I have to. I will trick you and deceive you, lie, cheat and steal to find you, tempt you out of your hiding place, and chase you until you have nowhere else to run. I make you this promise: your life is mine.

  Marie Lu

  Running, Brother, Lying

  Marie Lu (2011). “Legend”, p.45, Penguin

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• He pauses when he finishes undoing the last button, then closes his eyes. I can see the pain slashed across his face, and the sight tears at me. The Republic's most wanted criminal is just a boy, sitting before me, suddenly vulnerable, laying all his weaknesses out for me to see.

  Marie Lu

  Pain, Eye, Boys

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