Republicanism Quotes

• The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.

  Thomas Jefferson

  War, Rights, Government

  Thomas Jefferson, Jerry Holmes (2002). “Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts”, p.116, Rowman & Littlefield

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  No man is good enough to govern another man without the other's consent.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Leadership, Witty, Men

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• There are natural and imprescriptible rights which an entire nation has no right to violate. —MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE

  Michelle Moran

  Rights, Lafayette, Natural

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• True republicanism is the sovereignty of the people. There are natural and imprescriptible rights which an entire nation has no right to violate.

  Marquis de Lafayette

  Rights, People, Natural

  "Lafayette in Two Worlds: Public Cultures and Personal Identities in an Age of Revolutions" by Lloyd Kramer, (p. 256), 1999.

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• The further the departure from direct and constant control by the citizens, the less has the government of the ingredient of republicanism.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Government, Citizens, Departure

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies: From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson”, p.275

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• Republicanism is not the phantom of a deluded imagination. On the contrary, laws, under no form of government, are better supported, liberty and property better secured, or happiness more effectually dispensed to mankind.

  George Washington

  Happiness, Government, Law

  George Washington (1855). “Maxims of Washington: Political, Social, Moral, and Religious”, p.20

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• I'm convinced that today the majority of Americans want what those first Americans wanted: A better life for themselves and their children; a minimum of government authority.

  Ronald Reagan

  Children, Good Life, Happy Life

  Ronald Reagan (1983). “A Time for Choosing: The Speeches of Ronald Reagan, 1961-1982”, Gateway Books

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• I have always considered Christianity as the strong ground of republicanism.

  Benjamin Rush

  Strong, Christianity

  Benjamin Rush (1951). “Letters of Benjamin Rush: 1793-1813”

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• It was by the sober sense of our citizens that we were safely and steadily conducted from monarchy to republicanism, and it is by the same agency alone we can be kept from falling back.

  James Madison

  War, Fall, Agency

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• Republicanism and ignorance are in bitter antagonism.

  Alphonse de Lamartine

  Ignorance, Republic, Bitter

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• Religion and virtue are the only foundations, not of republicanism and of all free government, but of social felicity under all government and in all the combinations of human society.

  John Adams

  Government, Religion, Foundation

  John Adams (2015). “The Works of John Adams Vol. 9: Letters and State Papers 1799 - 1811”, p.501, Jazzybee Verlag

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• Republicans want smaller government for the same reason crooks want fewer cops; it's easier to get away with murder.

  James Carville

  Government, Political, Police

  James Carville (2003). “Had Enough?: A Handbook for Fighting Back”, p.21, Simon and Schuster

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• I'm not a Republican because I grew up rich, but because I didn't want to spend the rest of my life poor, waiting for the government to rescue me.

  Mike Huckabee

  Government, Waiting, Political

  Mike Huckabee's remarks at the Republican National Convention, Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota, www.npr.org. September 3, 2008.

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• We aim in the domain of politics at republicanism; in the domain of economics at socialism; in the domain of what is today called religion, at atheism.

  August Bebel

  Atheism, Today, Socialism

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• If, then, the control of the people over the organs of their government be the measure of its republicanism, and I confess I know no other measure, it must be agreed that our governments have much less of republicanism than ought to have been expected; in other words, that the people have less regular control over their agents, than their rights and their interests require.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Rights, Government, People

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies from the papers of T. Jefferson”

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• The odious and disgusting aristocracy of wealth is built upon the ruins of all that is good in chivalry or republicanism; and luxury is the forerunner of a barbarism scarcely capable of cure.

  Percy Bysshe Shelley

  Luxury, Aristocracy, Ruins

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats (1831). “The poetical works of Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats”, p.387

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• What I do say is, that no man is good enough to govern another man, without that other's consent. I say this is the leading principle - the sheet anchor of American republicanism.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Men, Anchors, Principles

  Speech, Peoria, Ill., 16 Oct. 1854

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• I would like to have an ample fund to spread the light of Republicanism, but I am willing to undergo the disadvantage to make certain that in the future we shall reduce the power of money in politics for unworthy purposes.

  William Howard Taft

  Light, Purpose, Money In Politics

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• It is not enough to say we were born to be Republicans, it's more precise to say Republicanism is part of our DNA.

  Dolours Price

  Dna, Republican, Enough

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• When caring for your neighbor becomes a compulsory obligation imposed by government instead of voluntary, charity turns to confiscation and freedom to achieve to involuntary servitude. To liberals, compassion seems to be defined by how many people are dependent on the government; to conservatives, it's defined by how many people no longer need help. One promotes dependence, the other freedom, responsibility and achievement.

  Star Parker

  Freedom, Responsibility, Caring

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  I think the Republican party should be placed in drydock and have the barnacles scraped off its bottom.

  Tallulah Bankhead

  Party, Thinking, America

  Tallulah Bankhead (1952). “Tallulah: My Autobiography”, p.282, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• What is the structure of government that will best guard against the precipitate counsels and factious combinations for unjust purposes, without a sacrifice of the fundamental principle of republicanism?

  James Madison

  Sacrifice, Government, Principles

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• 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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• The Seventeenth Amendment serves not the public's interest but the interests of the governing masterminds and their disciples. Its early proponents advanced it not because they championed 'democracy' or the individual, but because they knew it would be one of several important mechanisms for empowering the federal government and unraveling constitutional republicanism.

  Mark Levin

  Government, Empowering, Important

  Mark R. Levin (2013). “The Liberty Amendments”, p.47, Simon and Schuster

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• We profess to be republicans, and yet we neglect the only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government; that is, the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible; for this divine book, above all others, favors that equality among mankind, that respect for just laws, and all those sober and frugal virtues which constitute the soul of republicanism.

  Benjamin Rush

  Book, Mean, Government

  Benjamin Rush (1988). “Essays: Literary, Moral and Philosophical”, Union College

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