Benjamin William Arnett Quotes

The citizens of America are her monarchs. No country deserves so well of its people, and none is so dependent upon them.

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

For citizens to always be ready to defend and to maintain American ideals of public justice and liberty would add to the self respect of the people. It will teach the people to think of their government as a unified and exalted power for good in the world—humane, unselfish, and aspiring.

This is a country that I love and that I believe in, but at the same time also believe that you should, as a part of this country, have the right to be able to talk very clearly about the issues that are happening, going on.

Good citizenship and defending democracy means living up to the ideals and values that make this country great.

I am proud to be an American Citizen.

Is it possible that the people of the U.S. enjoying the blessings of freedom under the only republican government on earth have not virtue enough to support it?

I feel sorry for those who measure their patriotism by how often and how viciously they can criticize our government.

We receive from America the right to vote as Americans, for America's weal, and if we cannot use our privilege as Americans we should surrender it.

The only way we can keep our freedom is to work at it. Not some of us. All of us. Not some of the time, but all of the time. So if you value your citizenship and you want to keep it for yourself and your children and their children, give it your faith, your belief, and give it your active support in civic affairs.

Un-American activity cannot be prevented or routed out by employing un-American methods; to preserve freedom we must use the tools that freedom provides.

If you love your country you’ll find ways somehow to speak out to do what you think is right.

… schools of liberty …. warehouses of disinterested patriotism

A little citizenship ought to be taught at the mother’s knee and in the nursery. Citizenship is what makes a republic; monarchies can get along without it.

Voting rights matter. They are a major part of who we are as Americans.

Surely, if it is the right of the people to "alter or abolish," it is their right to criticize, even severely, policies they believe destructive of the ends for which government has been established. This principle, in the Declaration of Independence, suggests that true patriotism lies in supporting the values the country is supposed to cherish: equality, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. When our government compromises, undermines, or attacks those values, it is being unpatriotic.

Every friend to the liberty of his country is bound to reflect, and step forward to prevent the dreadful consequences which shall result from a government of events.

We are all allowed to support whoever we'd like to in this country. That's the greatest part about being an American - one of them, that is; you know what I mean?

I grew up in San Francisco. And so I'm informed in a certain kind of way about, you know, believing in democracy and believing in America. And I'm a very ardent patriot.

Join America taught English, an understanding of the U.S. Constitution, that the Bill of Rights is the ultimate insurance policy for a citizen, and that being a citizen is not an entitlement. And we also taught a bit of capitalism.

Now, when our nation to ruin's brink is verging, let us speak while there is time! Now, when the padlocks for our lips are forging. Silence is crime!

There is nothing more American than dissent.

We’re a democracy and we’re defended by volunteers.

We, too, are Americans.. On us, as well as on them [the United States], lies the duty of preserving the honor of the continent. On us, as on them, rests the noble trust of shielding free institutions.

There should be constitutional liberty of speech and freedom of thought, which is the elementary right of every citizen under any civilized form of Government