Quotes · Skopia

18 quotes

The perpetuity of our institutions depends upon ourselves...if we maintain the principles on which they were established they are destined to confer their benefits on countless generations yet to come.

Martin Van Buren

Inaugural Address of Martin van Buren · 1837

★ 1.1

Speech · Political speech

The people are the masters.

Edmund Burke

Speech in House of Commons, February 11, 1780 · 1780

★ 1.2

Supreme Court opinion · Legal opinion · Legal writing

Immunities that are valid as against the federal government by force of the specific pledges of particular amendments have been found to be implicit in the concept of ordered liberty, and thus, through the Fourteenth Amendment, become valid as against the states.

Benjamin Cardozo

Palko v. Connecticut · 1937

★ 1.8

Speech · Political speech

Government is a trust, and the officers of the government are trustees; and both the trust and the trustees are created for the benefit of the people.

Henry Clay

1829

★ 1.9

Speech · Political speech

In our own lives, let each of us ask—not just what will government do for me, but what can I do for myself? In the challenges we face together, let each of us ask—not just how can government help, but how can I help?

Richard Nixon

Second Inaugural Address of Richard Nixon · 1973

★ 1.9

Speech · Political speech

It's not my intention to do away with government. It is rather to make it work—work with us, not over us; to stand by our side, not ride on our back. Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity, not stifle it.

Ronald Reagan

First Inaugural Address of Ronald Reagan · 1981

★ 2.0

Speech · Political speech

Our New Beginning is a continuation of that beginning created two centuries ago when, for the first time in history, government, the people said, was not our master, it is our servant; its only power that which we the people allow it to have.

Ronald Reagan

Second Inaugural Address of Ronald Reagan · 1985

★ 2.0

Speech · Political speech

What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility—a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

Barack Obama

First Inaugural Address of Barack Obama · 2009

★ 2.0

Supreme Court opinion · Legal opinion · Legal writing

It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the Government from falling into error.

Robert H. Jackson

American Communications Assn. v. Douds · 1950

★ 3.5

Novel

I repeat... That all power is a trust - that we are accountable for its exercise - that, from the people, and for the people, all springs, and all must exist.

Benjamin Disraeli

1826

★ 3.5

Poem

Would it not be easier In that case for the government To dissolve the people And elect another?

Bertolt Brecht

1956

★ 3.5

Essay

A man of high principle will be ready to sacrifice to the state his wealth, his life, his very nature-everything, indeed, except his honor.

Maximilien Robespierre

1784

★ 3.6

Biography

I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government rather than another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual.

Samuel Johnson

James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D · 1772

★ 3.7

Speech · Political speech

We are a nation that has a government—not the other way around. And this makes us special among the nations of the Earth. Our government has no power except that granted it by the people. It is time to check and reverse the growth of government, which shows signs of having grown beyond the consent of the governed.

Ronald Reagan

First Inaugural Address of Ronald Reagan · 1981

★ 3.7

Speech · Political speech

There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

1936

★ 4.5

"A fair day's-wages for a fair day's work:" it is as just a demand as Governed men ever made of Governing. It is the everlasting right of man.

Thomas Carlyle

Past and Present · 1843

★ 5.3

Play

What pity is it, That we can die but once, to serve our country!

Joseph Addison

1713

★ 6.9

Speech · Political speech

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.

John F. Kennedy

Inaugural Address of John F. Kennedy · 1961

★ 9.0

Sourced and curated.