Jefferson Davis Quotes

Good government can be no substitute for self-government.

If you asked a Singaporean, on the one hand they'll say, 'Let us do our own things.' On the other hand, when an issue comes out, they'll ask, 'What is the government doing about it?'

So long as I do not firmly and irrevocably possess the right to vote I do not possess myself. I cannot make up my mind - it is made up for me. I cannot live as a democratic citizen, observing the laws I have helped to enact - I can only submit to the edict of others.

In Spain, we should have enough intelligence, enough sense of individual and collective responsibility to do for ourselves that which would be imposed upon us by a dictatorship.

I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.

Democracy, it appears, is a bit chancy. But its chances also depend on what we do ourselves.

In a society pledged to self-government, it is never true that, in the long run, the security of the nation is endangered by the people.

The public happiness is the true object of legislation, and can be secured only by the masses of mankind themselves awakening to the knowledge and the care of their own interests.

You are now fixed at the mercy of no governor that comes to make his fortune great; you shall be governed by laws of your own making and live a free, and if you will, a sober and industrious life. I shall not usurp the right of any, or oppress his person. God has furnished me with a better resolution and has given me his grace to keep it.

In democratic peoples, new families constantly issue from nothing, others constantly fall into it, and all those that stay on change face: the fabric of time is torn at every moment and the trace of generations is effaced. You easily forget those who have preceded you, and you have no idea of those who will follow you. As conditions are equalized, one finds a great number of individuals who … owe nothing to anyone: they expect so to speak nothing to anyone: they are in the habit of always considering themselves in isolation, and they willingly fancy that their whole destiny is in their hands.

I don't need anyone's approval for going to elections.

With us, the people of India, rests the real power to decide our collective future.

I never wanted to be a trophy wife. I wanted to make it on my own. I didn't want to depend on a man.

I don't care what the public wants, I'm going to give it what it needs!

Only a knowledgeable, empowered and vocal citizenry can perform well in democracy.

If the people of America do not rise up, take ownership of our country, we're going to lose it forever.

A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.

America's greatness is not found in the size of its government. America's greatness resides in the hearts and the minds of the people.

If I want to be free from any other man's dictation, I must understand that I can have no other man under my control.

If we are to give the people of China complete self-government we must first solve the problem of livelihood for all, and give real freedom to the races within China. If the foundations of democracy are secure, then true equality can be achieved.

True, other countries are helping us. Germany is determined to provide substantial help. So are the Netherlands and other states. But a day will come when we have to count on our own resources.

Balancing the common good with the freedom and liberty to exercise that individuality has been and remains a challenge for those committed to democracy while understanding that the polis ensures our participation and therefore our citizenship.

The people will save their government, if the government itself will allow them.

It is time we Georgians did not depend only on others, it is time we asked what Georgia will do for the world.

Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a man, you take it.