Government Quotes

Give me your tired, your poor,
your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.
- written on the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor

Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek,
but a means by which we arrive at that goal.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

If you want to make peace with your enemy,
you have to work with your enemy.
Then he becomes your partner.
- Nelson Mandela

Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe,
our class, and our nation;
and this means we must develop a world perspective.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Education is not the filling of a pail,
but the lighting of a fire.
- William Butler Yeats

We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic.
Different people, different beliefs,
different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.
- Jimmy Carter

Nothing is more important in our national life
than the welfare of our children.
- Harry S. Truman (when signing the National School Lunch Act in 1946)

Well, I don't know what will happen now.
We've got some difficult days ahead.
But it doesn't matter with me now.
Because I've been to the mountaintop.
And I don't mind. Like any man,
I would like to live a long life.
Longevity has its place.
But I'm not concerned about that now.
I just want to do God's will.
And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain.
And I've looked over.
And I've seen the promised land.
I may not get there with you.
But I want you to know tonight, that we,
as a people, will get to the promised land.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

When we step on the battlefield, I will be
The First Boots On and the Last Boots Off.
- LtG. Hal Moore

Kindness is the light that dissolves
all walls between souls, families, and nations.
- Paramahansa Yogananda

Majority rule only works if you're also
considering individual rights,
because you can't have five wolves and one sheep
voting on what to have for dinner.
- Larry Flynt

We may have all come on different ships,
but we're in the same boat now.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

In Iroquois society, leaders are encouraged to
remember seven generations in the past and
consider seven generations in the future
when making decisions that affect the people.
- Wilma Mankiller

Is freedom anything else than the right
to live as we wish? Nothing else.
- Epictetus

Lend your voices only to sounds of freedom,
no longer lend your strength to that
which you wish to be free from.
Fill your life with love and bravery,
and you shall live a life uncommon.
- Jewel

We may have different religions, different
languages, different colored skin,
but we all belong to one human race.
- Kofi Annan

The hope of a secure and livable world
lies with disciplined nonconformists
who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

This is no time for ease and comfort.
It is time to dare and endure.
- Winston Churchill

In matters of style, swim with the current;
in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
- Thomas Jefferson

We must adjust to changing times
and still hold to unchanging principles.
- Jimmy Carter

Only aim to do your duty,
and mankind will give you credit where you fail.
- Thomas Jefferson

How do we measure a great leader?
By how he treats the least of these.
- Jesse Jackson

It is not desirable to cultivate
a respect for the law,
so much as for the right.
- Henry David Thoreau

Don't talk about what you have done
or what you are going to do.
- Thomas Jefferson

The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression
and cruelty by the bad people
but the silence over that by the good people.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

They who can give up essential liberty
to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety.
- Benjamin Franklin

It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war
is nothing but an act of murder.
- Albert Einstein

To know how to free oneself is nothing;
the arduous thing is to know what to do with one's freedom.
- Andre Gide

Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind.
It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction
devised by the ingenuity of man.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Man lives freely only by his readiness to die, if need be,
at the hands of his brother, never by killing him.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Non-violence is a powerful and just weapon which cuts without wounding
and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

In matters of truth and justice,
there is no difference between large and small problems,
for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same.
- Albert Einstein

Non-violence and truth are inseparable and presuppose one another.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.
- West African proverb famously quoted by Theodore Roosevelt

Be a yardstick of quality.
Some people aren't used to an environment
where excellence is expected.
- Steve Jobs

If you want to be incrementally better: Be competitive.
If you want to be exponentially better: Be cooperative.
- Anonymous

I have a dream that my four little children will one day
live in a nation where they will
not be judged by the color of their skin,
but by the content of their character.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

We are not afraid to follow truth
wherever it may lead,
nor to tolerate any error
so long as reason is left free to combat it.
- Thomas Jefferson

Non-violence means avoiding not only external physical violence
but also internal violence of spirit.
You not only refuse to shoot a man,
but you refuse to hate him.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

It isn't enough to talk about peace.
One must believe in it.
And it isn't enough to believe in it.
One must work at it.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

If the misery of the poor be caused
not by the laws of nature,
but by our institutions,
great is our sin.
- Charles Darwin

The only way to deal with an unfree world
is to become so absolutely free
that your very existence is an act of rebellion.
- Albert Camus

Let's have faith that right makes might;
and in that faith let us, to the end,
dare to do our duty as we understand it.
- Abraham Lincoln

In matters of conscience,
the law of the majority has no place.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

It is better to displease the people
by doing what you know is right.
- William J. H. Boetcker

The problems of the world cannot possibly
be solved by skeptics or cynics
whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities.
We need men who can dream of things that never were.
- John F. Kennedy

Truth is certainly a branch of morality
and a very important one to society.
- Thomas Jefferson

Freedom is not worth having if it
does not connote freedom to err.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

I must dedicate my life to teaching my people,
for only education would make their lot less bitter,
their latent power more strong.
- Jimmy Yen

A small body of determined spirits
fired by an unquenchable faith
in their mission
can alter the course of history.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

The pursuit of truth does not permit violence on one's opponent.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

We work with the people not out of pity
but out of respect for their potential for growth and development,
both as individuals and as communities.
- Jimmy Yen

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May the world be kind to you,
and may your own thoughts be gentle upon yourself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

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