Civic Duty Quotes

I was raised to believe that we all have a civic duty and a responsibility as Americans to improve our neighborhoods and our nation. ~ Paul Cook

A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of the user. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

The people had once created the city. The city now created the people, or, more exactly, the people of Venice now identified themselves more in terms of the city. The private had become public. ~ Peter Ackroyd

Democratic dissent is not disloyalty, it is a positive civic duty. ~ Shami Chakrabarti

Where are our Men of abilities? Why do they not come forth to save their Country? ~ George Washington

I'm going with you," he said.
She frowned. "No, thank you."
"I insist."
"I don't need your services, Mr. Rohan."
Cam could think of a number of services she was clearly in need of, most of which would be a pleasure for him to provide. "Obviously it will be to everyone's benefit for you to retrieve Ramsay and leave London as quickly as possible. I consider it my civic duty to hasten your departure. ~ Lisa Kleypas

Distrust of authority should be the first civic duty. ~ Norman Douglas

It was no accident that the beau ideal of his (John Adams') political philosophy was balance, since he projected onto the world the conflicting passions he felt inside himself and regarded government as the balancing mechanism that prevented those factions and furies from spending out of control. ~ Joseph J. Ellis

It is the writer's duty to tell the terrible truth, and it is a reader's civic duty to learn this truth. To turn away, to close one's eyes and walk past is to insult the memory of those who have perished. ~ Vasily Grossman

Paying tax should be framed as a glorious civic duty worthy of gratitude - not a punishment for making money. ~ Alain De Botton

The kinds of people we need in government are precisely the kinds of people who are most reluctant to go into government
people who understand the inherent dangers of power and feel a distaste for using it, but who may do so for a few years as a civic duty. The worst kind of people to have in government are those who see it as a golden opportunity to impose their own superior wisdom and virtue on others. ~ Thomas Sowell

A final irony has to do with the idea of political responsibility. Christians are urged to vote and become involved in politics as an expression of their civic duty and public responsibility. This is a credible argument and good advice up to a point. Yet in our day, given the size of the state and the expectations that people place on it to solve so many problems, politics can also be a way of saying, in effect, that the problems should be solved by others besides myself and by institutions other than the church. It is, after all, much easier to vote for a politician who champions child welfare than to adopt a baby born in poverty, to vote for a referendum that would expand health care benefits for seniors than to care for an elderly and infirmed parent, and to rally for racial harmony than to get to know someone of a different race than yours. True responsibility invariably costs. Political participation, then, can and often does amount to an avoidance of responsibility. ~ James Davison Hunter

Thanks to modern technology, we now can deliver every text in every research library to every citizen in our country, and to everyone in the world. If we fail to do so, we are not living up to our civic duty. ~ Robert Darnton

The reason the government sells the census as your ticket to getting goodies - rather than as your civic duty - is that distributing goodies is now all the government does. ~ Tom G. Palmer

The state is a voluntary association of individuals designed to serve their individual interests. The state is not a faceless villain. The state is all of us. But freedom does not mean the freedom to commit violence. Violence includes direct and indirect action; i.e., it is just as violent to cause someone to starve to death by withholding aid as it is to shoot him, only sneakier. ~ Robert Peate

The dignity of the act is the deliberate, circumspect, open, and serene performance by these men in the clear light of day, and by a concurrent purpose, of a civic duty, which embraced the greatest hazards to themselves and to all the people from whom they held this deputed discretion, but which, to their sober judgments, promised benefits to that people and their posterity, from generation to generation, exceeding these hazards and commensurate with its own fitness. ~ William M. Evarts

I can't remember when I've spent a more...enjoyable Saturday." She sighed, then teased his tongue with hers.
"Since I don't intend to move for at least twenty-four hours,we'll see how you like Sunday as well."
"I think I'm going to love it." She slid a hand over his shoulder. "I don't like to be pushy, Senator, but when are you going to marry me?"
"I thought September in Hyannis Port."
"The MacGregor fortess." He saw by her eyes the idea appealed to hre. "But September's two and a half months away."
"We'll make it August," he said as he nibbled at her ear. "In the meantime, you and your roommates can move in here, or we can start looking for another place. Would you like to honeymoon in Scotland?"
Shelby nestled into his throat. "Yes." She tilted her head back. "In the meantime," she said slowly as her hands wandered down to his waist. "I've been wanting to tell you that there's one of your domestic policies I'm fully in favor or,Senator."
"Really?" His mouth lowered to hover just above hers.
"You have-" she nipped at his bottom lip "-my full support.I wonder if you could just...run through the prodecure for me one more time."
Alan slid a hand down her side. "It's my civic duty to make myself avaiable to all my constituents."
Shelby's fingers ran up his chest to stop his jaw just before he captured her lips. "As long as it's only me, Senator." She hooked her arm around his neck. "This is the one-man one-vote system. ~ Nora Roberts

We in the Jewish community must ask ourselves what role we are going to play in changing policies and practices that discriminate against LGBT Americans. We have a special responsibility and civic duty to ensure that all Americans are treated with dignity and equality. ~ Lynn Schusterman

Let every man shovel out his own snow, and the whole city will be passable," said Gamache. Seeing Beauvoir's puzzled expression he added, "Emerson."
"Lake and Palmer?"
"Ralph and Waldo. ~ Louise Penny

There's a generation of people I think without a strong connection to family, to religion, to civic duty. They have a real disassociation from the problems of the world. ~ Tim Heidecker

Just think of me as your friendly neighborhood cuddler." He's quiet again before another question bursts from him. "Are you telling me you'd do this for anyone?" I snuggle down. "No. That you're insanely hot is a huge factor. I get to cop a feel under the guise of civic duty." "Oh, for fuck's sake." A smile pulls at my lips. "Can it with the outrage. I know for a fact that most people would rather snuggle up to a hot dude. If it makes me shallow for admitting that, so be it." He ~ Kristen Callihan

We really have to do something about you ambivalence toward civic duty, kid."
"I already overthrew one government," Vin said. "I figure that takes care of my 'civic duty' for a while. ~ Brandon Sanderson

People aren't as stupid as the politicians think. More and more of us are laughing off our 'civic duty' to vote, rejecting the role of compulsory constituent. ~ Bob Black

I think it is every woman's duty to make herself as attractive as her time and means permit. After all, there you are, in your person- a living symbol of the progress of art, science and imagination. To be as attractive as we can be is almost a civic duty; there are so many sad and ugly things in the world that I think women should say to themselves humbly, not with vanity, 'I will try to be as pretty as I can, so that when people look at me, they will feel refreshed. I will make an effort to be easy on the eye.' ~ Ilka Chase

To me, history ought to be a source of pleasure. It isn't just part of our civic responsibility. To me, it's an enlargement of the experience of being alive, just the way literature or art or music is.
[The Title Always Comes Last; NEH 2003 Jefferson Lecturer interview profile] ~ David McCullough

I think there is a new awareness in this 21st century that design is as important to where and how we live as it is for museums, concert halls and civic buildings. ~ Daniel Libeskind

I'm going to go see if Graham needs first aid." Or mouth to mouth. It is my civic duty. ~ Lindy Zart

What is punishment and theft to conservatives is civic duty and fairness to liberals. There ~ George Lakoff

What can a state institution teach us? In what way can I be reformed by a penal colony and you by, say, Russian TV Channel 1? In his Nobel lecture, Joseph Brodsky said, 'The more substantial an individual's aesthetic experience is, the sounder his taste, the sharper his moral focus, the freer - though not necessarily the happier - he is.' We in Russia once again find ourselves in a situation where resistance, especially aesthetic resistance, becomes the only viable moral choice as well as a civic duty." Nadya ~ Masha Gessen

Are you some kind of tree police?" Joshua asked without opening his eyes. "Do you feel as if you have some kind of civic duty to come out here and - and - annoy the hell out of me?"
"Well - yes - I do have a civic duty to stop you - that is - if you needed stopping. If you'd kept to simple tree assault, I would have just kept watching. It was fairly entertaining, in a train wreck kind of way. You've moved up to tree homicide."
"Homicide?" Joshua opened his eyes to give the man an annoyed glare. "That implies intent. At most, this is tree slaughter. Maybe even just reckless endangerment - it might not be dead."
They eyed the tree in silence. His kick had sheered the tree trunk off five inches from the roots, leaving behind a jagged white stump, flowing with sap.
"No, that's dead," the man said.
"Yeah." Joshua had to agree. It occurred to Joshua that this person might be undercover cop or some off-duty park ranger or a very lost Canadian Mountie or something. He'd seen Joshua destroy a piece of public property worth hundreds of dollars. The man might try to arrest him. That wouldn't end well for either one of them. ~ Wen Spencer

Patriotism is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime. ~ Adlai E. Stevenson II

I'd hate to imply that it's your civic duty to see The House I Live In, but guess what it is. ~ Ty Burr

Civic duty? Perhaps it would be a little naive to try to coerce me into voting. I assure you my basic standards of healthy living are very different from yours, which is the reason I do not vote. You should note that, as nonsensical a scenario, if forced to choose I would most definitely rather live in a failing, Christ-honoring, God-fearing nation than a flourishing one that mocks said Creator. Beware of my personal ambitions. ~ Criss Jami

Alamo has been a strong inspiration for nations striving for freedom all around the globe since 1836. Gvozdansko has not earned public reputation, but profoundly touched the heart of the bitter enemy Ferhat-paša alone in 1578. Croats have a duty and obligation to learn about Gvozdansko. ~ Vinko Vrbanic

Implore him to be a merciful ass and trample his duty under foot. ~ Mark Twain

We have a duty to our country to participate in the political process. See, if you believe in freedom, you have a duty to exercise your right to vote to begin with. I'm [here] to encourage people to do their duty, to go to the polls. I want all people, no matter what their political party is or whether they even like a political party, to exercise their obligation to vote. ~ George W. Bush

Live in the present tense, facing the duty at hand without regret for the past or worry over the future. ~ William DeWitt Hyde

The signatories quote various Muslim authorities and then proceed to the final and most important part of their declaration, the fatwa, laying down that to kill Americans and their allies, both civil and military, is an individual duty of every Muslim who is able, in any country where this is possible, until the Aqsa mosque [in Jerusalem] and the Haram mosque [in Mecca] are freed from their grip, and until their armies, shattered and broken-winged, depart from all the lands of Islam, incapable of threatening any Muslim. ~ Bernard Lewis

On the revelation that there are no gods or afterlife:-

"I do not 'like' the truth any more than you Avil, or anyone. I wrestled with it for a long time, for a while I was distraught, desperate to find that my research had been wrong - the more I searched, the deeper I delved the more clear it became that the truth was what it is. After much reflection, I came to the conclusion that though accepting the truth is hard, moving on from that, it becomes clear that the important thing is to make the world we live in a better place. We get one life, it's our duty to make the most of it."

~Brael Truthseeker of House Krazic
Deathsworn Arc 2 : The Verkreath Horror ~ Martyn Stanley

Civic charity is easy to talk about but tremendously difficult to practice - mainly because a lot of people don't reciprocate. Some people will be rude and obnoxious and will laugh at us when we try to engage with them charitably. They will see our generosity as a sign of weakness and take advantage of our good nature to abuse us further. We will forgive them the requisite seventy times seven times, and they will keep on offending us. Charity always works this way, both the civic kind and the 'love-other-people-like-God-loves-you' kind.

We need not think, however, that we are shirking our duties or abandoning our causes when we decline to angrily denounce those on the other side or to treat them like subhuman imbeciles. Charitable engagement does not always change people's hearts and minds, but the number of times it has done so is not zero - which gives charity a better track record than anger, contempt, and derision. Ultimately, though, mature and thoughtful people do not allow the way other people treat them to determine how they treat other people; when we do this, we surrender an enormous amount of power to people who do not wish us well. ~ Michael Austin

The whole of life is but a moment of time. It is our duty, therefore to use it, not to misuse it. ~ Plutarch

Marriage is a civic matter. It is really not, together with all its circumstances, the business of the church. ~ Martin Luther

The Brinktown jail is one of the most ingenious ever propounded by civic authorities. It must be remembered that Brinktown occupies the surface of a volcanic butte, overlooking a trackless jungle of quagmire, thorn, eel-vine skiver tussock. A single road leads from city down to jungle; the prisoner is merely locked out of the city. Escape is at his option; he may flee as far through the jungle as he sees fit: the entire continent is at his disposal. But no prisoner ever ventures far from the gate; and, when his presence is required, it is only necessary to unlock the gate and call his name. ~ Jack Vance

It is our solemn duty, our precious privilege-even our sacred opportunity-to welcome to our homes and to our hearts the children who grace our lives. ~ Thomas S. Monson

Mankind ought constantly to be striving to produce Great Men
this and nothing else is its duty ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Giving back with love is our duty. ~ Debasish Mridha

There are 40,000 Iraqi police on duty around the country. If they detect an attack about to happen, the police are the ones who are supposed to stop it. ~ Paul Bremer

The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government. ~ George Washington

Our minds and hearts are free to believe everything or nothing at all - and it is our duty to protect and perpetuate this sacred culture of freedom. ~ Thomas Jefferson

The great discovery of the nineteenth century, that we are of one blood with the lower animals, has created new ethical obligations which have not yet penetrated the public conscience. The clerical profession has been lamentably remiss in preaching this obvious duty. ~ William Ralph Inge

Moving to the forefront of advanced nations is not a choice but a national duty. This requires, among other things, erecting the best industrial property protection systems despite all challenges, particularly in the transition phase that we must endure. ~ Talal Abu-Ghazaleh

Good stewardship of the environment is not just a personal responsibility, it is a public value ... Our duty is to use the land well, and sometimes not to use it at all. This is our responsibility as citizens, but more than that, it is our calling as stewards of the earth. ~ George W. Bush

True religion extends alike to the intellect and the heart. Intellect is in vain if it lead not to emotion, and emotion is vain if not enlightened by intellect; and both are vain if not guided by truth and leading to duty. ~ Tryon Edwards

Our heroes are over there where the white crosses are. We're survivors over here.

None of us are heroes. I don't think you'll talk to a man who say we are. You figure a hero is someone who does above and beyond the call of duty, and when you give your life that's as above and beyond as you can get

- Earl McClung. ~ Marcus Brotherton

My duty, I know, is to lead. I cannot offer an array of options. I must offer a long but narrow path to Salvation, and guide the Saints down it. Were that path wide and varied, it would lead nowhere; and I will then have failed both God and man. ~ David Ebershoff

I feel a duty to write because I can write songs. ~ Justin Hayward

We may take it to be the accepted idea that the Mosaic books were not handed down to us for our instruction in scientific knowledge, and that it is our duty to ground our scientific beliefs upon observation and inference, unmixed with considerations of a different order. ~ Asa Gray

Dear Mr. Garry,
Let us face it. Small considerations, magnified by the conventions, are not important to people like you and me. It is our duty to found a super-race together. My background of deep study into esoteric matters has convinced me that the only thing that can save the race is to people the world with the superior strain evident in both of us. I enclose a nude photograph of myself and will appreciate it if you will do likewise. I am thirty three years old and have kept myself sacrosanct awaiting this great moment. ~ Theodore Sturgeon

There are some women who are flirts upon principle; they consider it their duty to make themselves as pleasing as possible to every one. ~ Antoine Rivarol

[J]uvenile delinquent' is a contradiction in terms. 'Delinquent' means 'failing in duty.' But duty is an adult virtue
indeed a juvenile becomes an adult when, and only when, he acquires a knowledge and duty and embraces it more than the self-love he was born with. ~ Robert A. Heinlein

If Elroy does start a fight, just don't stab him with your knife, Zora requested.

Okay, first of all Zora, it's a Kirpan, a ceremonial dagger. It's not some common knife. It's a scared object to symbolize my duty as a Sikh to defend myself and others from oppression. Second, my Kirpan has been passed in my family for generations, I'm not going to dirty it with Elroy's blood. He is not worth it.

Oh thank goodness, Zora said.

Not when I have other methods, Chaaya said. ~ Emily Kirby

The duty of the individual farmer, at this time, is to increase his production, particularly of food crops. ~ David F. Houston

We have a soul at times.
No one's got it non-stop,
for keeps.

Day after day,
year after year
may pass without it.

Sometimes
it will settle for awhile
only in childhood's fears and raptures.
Sometimes only in astonishment
that we are old.

It rarely lends a hand
in uphill tasks,
like moving furniture,
or lifting luggage,
or going miles in shoes that pinch.

It usually steps out
whenever meat needs chopping
or forms have to be filled.

For every thousand conversations
it participates in one,
if even that,
since it prefers silence.

Just when our body goes from ache to pain,
it slips off-duty.

It's picky:
it doesn't like seeing us in crowds,
our hustling for a dubious advantage
and creaky machinations make it sick.

Joy and sorrow
aren't two different feelings for it.
It attends us
only when the two are joined.

We can count on it
when we're sure of nothing
and curious about everything.

Among the material objects
it favors clocks with pendulums
and mirrors, which keep on working
even when no one is looking.

It won't say where it comes from
or when it's taking off again,
though it's clearly expecting such questions.

We need it
but apparently
it needs us
for some reason too. ~ Wisława Szymborska

Listen, if you walk into a whorehouse and find yourself getting sucked off, it's because you put some money on the counter, not because the gods transported a pair of lips to your cock.' 'That's . . . a really incredible metaphor, Jean, but I think I could use some help translating it.' 'What I'm saying is, we have a duty to accept on faith, but also a duty to weigh and judge. Once you insist that some mundane thing was actually the miraculous hand of the gods, why not treat everything that way? When you start finding messages from the heavens in your breakfast sausages, you've thrown aside your responsibility to use your head. If the gods wanted credulous idiots for priests, why wouldn't they make you that way when you were chosen? ~ Scott Lynch

What made their marriage more than a run-of-the-mill case of domestic estrangement was her refusal to accept her lot. She stayed furious all the days of her life - so sure of her ground, so successfully spoiled, that she was impervious to the social pressures and propaganda that made most women settle down to play the part of wife. ~ Lorna Sage

My vision is that our country should be integrated in the EU, to transfer a part of our independence there. It is also our duty to do it, if we want to establish trade and a sound economy. This is the vision that I am working on and I will continue to work in the future. ~ Ibrahim Rugova

A common currency imposes on us a duty to cooperate more on policy. ~ Gerhard Schroder

If we are to become the masters of science, not its slaves, we must learn to use its immense power to good purpose. The machine itself has neither mind nor soul nor moral sense. Only man has been endowed with these godlike attributes. Every age has its destined duty. Ours is to nurture an awareness of those divine attributes and a sense of responsibility in giving them expression. ~ David Sarnoff

Each and every one of us who is still lucky enough to have our parents has a duty to them. We do owe them. ~ Ann Jillian

God says it is our duty as Christians to take care of widows and orphans and to help the poor within the Christian society ... And Jesus said, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me" Matthew 25:40 KJV]. ~ Billy Graham

Character is doing what you don't want to do but know you should do. ~ Joyce Meyer

Now a slave is not 'held' by any legal contract, obligation, duty, or authority, which the laws will enforce. He is 'held' only by brute force. One person beats another until the latter will obey him, work for him, if he require it, or do nothing if he require it. ~ Lysander Spooner

Looking across this field, we see the scale of heroism and sacrifice. All who are buried here understood their duty. All stood to protect America. And all carried with them memories of a family that they hoped to keep safe by their sacrifice. ~ George W. Bush

A tough fight against evil is the duty of good man. ~ Khem Veasna

Performing the duty prescribed by (one's own) nature, one incurreth no sin. ~ Anonymous

At the beginning of the war, and for some time, the use of colored troops was not contemplated; and how the change of purpose was wrought, I will not now take time to explain. Upon a clear conviction of duty I resolved to turn that element of strength to account; and I am responsible for it to the American people, to the christian world, to history, and on my final account to God. ~ Abraham Lincoln

A poet is not somebody who has great thoughts. That is the menial duty of the philosopher. A poet is somebody who expresses his thoughts, however commonplace they may be, exquisitely. That is the one and only difference between the poet and everybody else. ~ Mark Forsyth

The ancient superficial idea of the uniform and progressive growth of the human personality has remained unaltered, and the erroneous belief has persisted that it is the duty of the adult to fashion the child according to the pattern required by society. ~ Maria Montessori