George Mason Quotes

Open the way before the new government to prove that it is for serving the people.

When the people's voice cannot be heard, that's when we make mistakes.

… once you acknowledge the fact that Congress is after all made up of citizens elected to represent all of us, you must have some faith in their framing common sense laws.

We elect these people not to represent their parties but to represent us.

The fight for reform comes down to a simple goal: giving our citizens the confidence that government serves the people first and the people only.

When you become active in the system and communicate to your representatives, and they don't vote in accordance with your values, your responsibility is to support candidates who will.

Part of the problem you have is that you don't have a dialogue between elected officials and their constituents. They've built these barricades, these barriers around themselves and tried to avoid interaction with their constituents.

In a democracy, a leader must be the head teacher, someone eager to respond to doubts and questions and explain the need for and the benefits of a new course.

Democratic elections alone do not remedy the crisis of confidence in government. Moreover, there is no viable justification for a democratic system in which public participation is limited to voting.

After all, I have spent the better part of my adult life insisting that government be open... that government be accessible... and that government be held accountable to people who voted us into office.

My focus is on my constituents.

In a democracy, the one thing that cannot be done is to destroy its trust, its hope, its idealism.

I probably hold more town halls than any member of Congress.

We have been taught to regard a representative of the people as a sentinel on the watch-tower of liberty.

If you present good government, then elections look after themselves.

I ask the rights to pursue happiness by having a voice in that government to which I am accountable.

We have also heard that thou hast entrusted the reins of counsel into the hands of the representatives of the people. Thou, indeed, hast done well, for thereby the foundations of the edifice of thine affairs will be strengthened, and the hearts of all that are beneath thy shadow, whether high or low, will be tranquillized

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

You have only two things of value here in congress, your word and your vote. Don't give either of them lightly.

The voice of the people must be heeded.

The people can never err more in supposing that by multiplying their representatives beyond a certain limit they strengthen the barrier against the government of a few.

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

In order to enable and encourage a representative of the publick to discharge his publick trust with firmness and success, it is indispensably necessary that he should enjoy the fullest liberty of speech, and that he should be protected from the resentment of everyone, however powerful, to whom the exercise of that liberty may occasion offence

Members of Congress will pay attention to members of their own districts.

There are over 30,000 lobbyists circling around the 535 members of Congress. The people should have their Senator as their lobbyist.