Civic Knowledge Quotes

Our naturalization laws should be so amended as to make the inquiry into the character and good disposition of persons applying for citizenship more careful and searching … We accept the man as a citizen without any knowledge of his fitness, and he assumes the duties of citizenship without any knowledge as to what they are. The privileges of American citizenship are so great and its duties so grave that we may well insist upon a good knowledge of every person applying for citizenship and a good knowledge by him of our institutions. We should not cease to be hospitable to immigration, but we should cease to be careless as to the character of it. There are men of all races, even the best, whose coming is necessarily a burden upon our public revenues or a threat to social order. These should be identified and excluded.

An educated, enlightened & informed population is one of the surest ways of promoting the health of a democracy

I feel quite sure that what the American people lack is knowledge.

I had become increasingly concerned in recent years about the lack of civics education in our nation's schools. In recent years, the schools have stopped teaching it. And it's unfortunate.

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.

I think to understand how the democratic process works is the most important thing, so people don't get frightened by it, and get put off, and give up.

I don't think I'm equipped enough to be giving anyone a civics lesson or any kind of message.

You have to be educated to vote.

I think most people have a general idea of the Constitution, and somewhat of the Bill of Rights.

Half the states have stopped making civics and government a requirement for high school. Half.

This awareness instills a fierce desire to protect that heritage and - in doing so - to educate Americans in the meaning and importance of our pivotal documents.

Without an educated populace, democracy cannot sustain itself.

No man can be a politician except he be first a historian.

I begin to feel like I was in the last generation of Americans who took a civics class.

There are many people who do not know if the U.S. Army has 60,000 men or 6 million. They do not have a clue about that.

As a matter of history, schoolchildren can and should properly be informed of all aspects of this Nation's religious heritage. I would see no constitutional problem if schoolchildren were taught the nature of the Founding Father's religious beliefs and how these beliefs affected the attitudes of the times and the structure of our government

Today, public understanding of our past and our system of government is pitifully low.

Students now arrive at the university ignorant and cynical about our political heritage, lacking the wherewithal to be either inspired by it or seriously critical of it.

The practice of our democracy depends on a sense of, and knowledge of, history in the same way that playing in the World Series requires a bat and a ball.

Even civics classes have almost disappeared from the schools. So things have not gotten any better.

Unless they can pass the same test that immigrants must pass to become citizens, people shouldnt be allowed to vote. The idea that there is some public benefit in ignoramuses and morons pulling levers next to names on a ballot is one of the evil myths of post-modern America. The purpose of voting, in our country, is to select men and women with the competence and integrity to operate the mechanics of government fixed by our Constitution. For this process to have any public benefit requires that the choices be made on an intelligent, knowledgeable and reasoned basis.

These are basic, nonpartisan, non-ideological questions. How many United States senators are there... who was the first president.

You can't be a full participant in our democracy if you don't know our history.

Are we reading the Constitution and pondering it? Are we aware of its principles? Are we abiding by these principles and teaching them to others? Could we defend the Constitution? Can we recognize when a law is constitutionally unsound? Do we know what the prophets have said about the Constitution and the threats to it?

The population has to be educated about how the government actually works.