Civic Identity Quotes

The exercise of democracy begins as exercise, as walking around, becoming familiar with the streets, comfortable with strangers, able to imagine your own body as powerful and expressive rather than a pawn.

I think Newark has been in the crosshairs in every generation of the fight to achieve America. And I think Newark is a city that's at that crossroads still.

I believe I have voted for both Democrats and Republicans. Am I either one? Absolutely not. Ladies and gentlemen, I am an American.

We hold these truths to be self-evident,” begins the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence. Who holds these truths? Americans hold these truths. Who are Americans? People who adhere to these truths. National identity and political principle were inseparable.

I'm not a Democrat, I'm not a Republican-I'm an American, I'm a human.

How to Turn Democrats & Republicans Into Americans

Beyond independence, Americans had no consensus on what being an American meant.

Civics isn't something where you learned - learn it for a couple weeks in high school; it is who we are. Americans defined themselves by their Constitution. That is what creates us. This is our heritage, and you must know our heritage.

America is the only nation in the world that does not define itself by its boundaries but by its creed.

I don't think you can lead a nation if you don't have a definition of the nation. We have to define, as Democrats, what a nation is and embrace the entire nation.

America rests on shared values rather than shared ethnicity.

America is a construction of mind, not of race or inherited class or ancestral territory.

Citizenship to me is more than a piece of paper. Citizenship is also about character. I am an American. We're just waiting for our country to recognize it.

[Ayres] was our city because we were building it. That's how I felt when I walked around town.

The Republic of Macedonia is being built on democratic ideals and values, not on ethnic groups. Those ideals and values include economic opportunities, language and educational opportunities, religious rights, and political processes.

Our civic society is really all we have by way of nationhood.

I do not call the sod under my feet my country; but language-religion-government-blood-identity in these makes men of one country.

Rome endured as long as there were Romans. America will endure as long as we remain American in spirit and in thought.

I am a Roman citizen.

The State is our neighbors; our neighbors are the State.

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.

'Oh, glory, I've said it so many times already: We are not just Northerners. We are part of the U.S.A.

We have become too much a society of consumers rather than a society of citizens.

I represent Chicago.

When I think about voting, I can skip it and still see myself as a good citizen. But when I think about being a voter, now the choice reflects on my character. It casts a shadow.