John Lithgow Quotes

I almost forgot what it's like to be proud of my government.

Many of you are disillusioned with the performance of this and past governments, and with the unkept promises. But we have to understand that we cannot manage without these reforms.

Europeans tend to feel more positively about their governments than do Americans, for whom the failures and unpopularity of their federal, state, and local politicians are a commonplace. Yet Americans' various governments collect taxes and, in return, provide services without which they could not easily live their lives.

It is hard to feel individually responsible with respect to the invisible processes of a huge and distant government.

I love Canada. I am from Canada. I will bash the Canadian government but never Canada.

You have citizens who don't understand how government works and they're kind of soured on it. All they do is criticize. They have no idea that they can make things happen.

I wanted to be what my high-school civics and history teacher thought of as a good American. That automatically involved taking an interest in government.

I was reluctant to be critical of the United States because I thought the United States could do no wrong; that the government could not lie to its people.

People need to know, before I'm associated with any party, I am an American, and that's what I want to drive home at the RNC.

For me, the definition of a patriot is someone who is willing to constantly question the government; that's what separates us from other countries.

Our democracy must be not only the envy of the world but the engine of our own renewal. There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.

The people's government has come to be less and less the people's business.

I am not an American who believes that questioning or criticizing my government is unpatriotic.

Citizenship should be placed above everything else, even learning.

We don’t even realize that we do not know who is running our country.

An actual residence of such a length of time as would give a man an opportunity of esteeming the Government from knowing its intrinsic value, was essentially necessary to assure us of a man’s becoming a good citizen.

Most of these people habitually led rather gray lives. And they came to see the president much as they would have come to see the circus. It was something to talk over and remember and tell their children about. But I think that besides the mere curiosity there was good feeling behind it all, a feeling that the president was their man and symbolized their government, and that they had a proprietary interest in him and wished to see him and that they hoped he embodied their aspirations and their best thoughts.

A popular society must provide a school for citizens where through the best, most accessible and direct means they may be educated in the pure doctrine of Patriotism.

I am proud to be a member of the Congress of the United States.

My election to the position of president is the symbol of the greatness of Indian democracy.

I love my country, but there are so many things we could do better.

I think all our leaders are utterly beneath us. You just watch 'Prime Minister's Questions' and go: 'How is this the best that we've got?'

When we ignore the will of the people, people lose.

Americans can live with the fact that good people sometimes give their lives for this country, but what they can't take, what they can't live with is when their government is not square with them.

Standing up to your government can mean standing up for your country.