Charles Augustin de Coulomb Quotes

Ask not what your country can do for you——ask what you can do for your country.

Clergymen do well to preach the neglected doctrine that the first duty of a citizen is to consider what he can do for the state and not what the state will do for him.

A public office is not a job, it is an opportunity to do something for the public.

As citizens of a free society, we have a duty to look critically at our world. But if we think we know what is wrong, we must act upon that knowledge.

If I can't do something for the public good, what the hell am I doing?

I feel it's a person's duty to participate in the governing of the country in which he lives.

There cannot be any impediment to science that will ultimately be good to the general public.

In the history of science, we often find that the study of some natural phenomenon has been the starting point in the development of a new branch of knowledge.

There is nothing which can better deserve our patronage than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness.

The members of the Church, as members of society, have the same right and duty to promote the common good as do other citizens.

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

If you accept the privilege of public service, you had better understand the responsibilities of public service.

If a more general prosperity permits a greater number of individuals to pursue studies, since at present, in the most enlightened countries, hardly a fiftieth part of those men to whom nature has given talent receive the education necessary to make use of their talents; and that, therefore, the number of men destined to push back the frontiers of the sciences by their discoveries will grow in the same proportion [as universal education increases].

The stock of materials by which any nation is rendered flourishing and prosperous are its industry, its knowledge or skill, its morals, its execution of justice, its courage, and the national union in directing these powers to one point and making them all center in the public benefit.

It is the essence of responsibility to put the public good ahead of personal gain.

Common carriers exercise a sort of public office, and have duties to perform in which the public is interested.... Their business is, therefore, affected with a public interest

The best citizens were supposed to desire honest men in office, men who would not take bribes, men who would appoint high-minded men as their subordinates, men who would look after the public interest, see that public charities were well supported.

"What greater gift can we offer the republic than to teach and instruct our youth?"

We need to understand that we as citizens and as a government in any community throughout this country have no more important obligation than to educate those who are going to replace us.

The increase of scientific knowledge lies not only in the occasional milestones of science, but in the efforts of the very large body of men who with love and devotion observe and study nature.

For me it's been very exciting to contribute to the public's understanding of how rich and wondrous science is.

Knowledge of human nature is the beginning and end of political education.

May I say, finally, that I have no illusions of grandeur; quite to the contrary, I am very humble in my knowledge that through forty years of my life my life has been an open book of service to my fellow architects and for the public good.

Science is organized knowledge.

Science is a wonderful discipline, to which we are deeply indebted.