George Bancroft Quotes

The power of the people and the power of reason are one.

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

The people want to exercise power but what on earth would they do with it if it were given to them?

When people fought for a democratic life, they were insisting that the common man had the capacity to engage in deliberation about how the community ought to run its life, not that you could let him squeak for what he wanted. And that ideal was that you could educate the common man to develop a certain amount of wisdom and that he could marshal the objectivity to deliberate and decide about what the public would require without always thinking that the political action was an opportunity to further his private interests…

It's a philosophy that - 'We, the People' - it's about us, that if the Americans want to do something, they have the power to try to put leaders in place to carry out whatever their notions are.

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

And I think that every American - this is an all-hands-on-deck moment for America. And I think it is good and important that every American is informed, understands the issues and whether I agree with them or not, comes into the public forum and we hear from them.

Democracy doesn't require a whole lot of work of its citizens, but it requires some: It requires taking a good look outside once in a while, and considering the bad news and what it might mean, and making the occasional tough choice, and soberly taking stock of what your real interests are.

A people morally and intellectually equal to self-government must also be equal in self-defence.

Democracy as a promise means that society can never be just enough and that the self-reflection and struggles that enable all members of the community to participate in the decisions and institutions that shape their lives must be continually debated, safeguarded, and preserved at all costs.

In order for critical pedagogy, dialogue, and thought to have real effects, they must advocate the message that all citizens, old and young, are equally entitled, if not equally empowered, to shape the society in which they live.

I hope you realize, in a democracy, laughter is assent.

Democracy belongs to those who exercise it.

I acknowledged that I owed my presidency to People Power. I resolved during my presidency that I would in turn empower the people.

The maxim, that governments ought to train the people in the way in which they should go, sounds well. But is there any reason for believing that a government is more likely to lead the people in the right way than the people to fall into the right way of themselves?

Power in politics, sovereignty in America is with we the people, and that is the path to turning this country around: empowering the people.

No power on earth is greater than a mind and soul reawakened. Our Constitution begins 'we the people', not 'us the government'.

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

The unique thing about our country is that we don't get behind politicians, politicians get behind us.

The masses are our masters; and for every one who looks facts in the face his existence has become dependent on them, so that the thought of them must control his doings, his cares, and his duties.

I was very proud of you and your vote on the McCarran Bill. I wish I could say the same for myself.

How few aim at the good of the whole, without aiming too much at the prosperity of the parts!

If you love the parliamentary system and are totally devoted to it ... that has to survive above all else, above your own individual thoughts about philosophy.

Democracy means not merely, I had almost said not so much, the rights of the whole people, as the duties of the whole people.

Being a citizen in a democracy involves more than just voting. It means being involved for the common whole.