Notable quotes

From Gateway to Gov

• “I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves...” - Thomas Jefferson

• "The genius of the United States is not best or most in its executives or legislatures, nor in its ambassadors or authors or colleges, or churches, or parlors, nor even in its newspapers or inventors, but always most in the common people." - Walt Whitman

• "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

• "The true bulwark of a society is a government strong enough to protect the will of its people; and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain sovereign control of its government." - Franklin Delano Roosevelt

• "The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens." - Alexis de Tocqueville

• "Today there seem to be few arenas where citizens can discuss and deliberate on the political issues that face them. Political debate instead is shallow, relying less on deliberation than on political advertising, shoddy slogans, and imagery. Lacking the means to shape political debate, we distance ourselves from politics, and by distancing ourselves from politics, we threaten the foundation of democracy: citizens participating in their own self-government by deciding their own political fate." - Creating a Democratic Public, by Kevin Mattson

• "If you want to change the world, be that change." - Ghandi

• "More than any time in the history of human civiliation, people now have the power to do public good" - Bill Clinton, at Generation Engage