Norman Lear Quotes

What were we told to do? Get back on those airplanes. Shop in the malls. The trouble was that the only role they had for us was as consumers—not as citizens.

I think Americans have become a - much more a nation of consumers than citizens.

In the kingdom of consumption the citizen is king. A democratic monarchy: equality before consumption, fraternity in consumption, and freedom through consumption.

National service is America at its best.

All of us as citizens have to be consumers and judges.

It is the State which educates its citizens in civic virtue, gives them a consciousness of their mission and welds them into unity.

Please, please, stop referring to yourselves as 'consumers.' OK? Consumers are different than citizens. Consumers do not have obligations, responsibilities and duties to their fellow human beings.

Talk of citizenship today is often thin and tinny. The word has a faintly old-fashioned feel to it when used in everyday conversation. When evoked in national politics, it's usually accompanied by the shrill whine of a descending culture-war mortar.

I think there is a big disjuncture between what we are served up as consumers and what we are served up as citizens.

I have no sense of patriotism, but I do have a sense of community.

Television is just one more facet of that considerable segment of our society that never had any standard but the soft buck.

Today's average American is more apt to rebel against a tennis shoe not coming in the right color than against the slow erosion of our democratic freedom.

Let us all take more responsibility, not only for ourselves and our families but for our communities and our country.

Citizens are not born. They are raised.

The most important office, ... that of private citizen.

Most human beings are defined in terms of their capacity to consume.

Where there is bread, there is my country. (Ubi est pane, ibi est patria.)

America is a country which produces citizens who will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but won't cross the street to vote.

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.

There is no one left to fix the nation, none but all of us.

The health of our republic depends on shared principles like the First Amendment, but it is also built on the Teddy Roosevelt-like vigor of its citizens and local self-reliance.

When I hear of nationalism in my country today from the youngsters, I want to sit them down and tell them that flags and songs are not nationalism. Stopping at the traffic signal, opening the door for a lady, doing something for your country is nationalism.

Please, please, stop referring to yourselves as "consumers." OK? Consumers are different than citizens. Consumers do not have obligations, responsibilities and duties to their fellow human beings. And as long as you're using that word "consumer" in the public discussion, you will be degrading the quality of the discussion we're having. And we're going to continue being clueless going into this very difficult future that we face

We need a new kind of citizenship, so that we can see citizens as themselves earning the rank of patriot because of their involvement in their community affairs....We as a society need to be encouraging people to focus not just on individual wants but on serving the larger community.