Self-Government Quotes

Essential Quotes

Northwest Ordinance

“Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.” – From Northwest Ordinance, July 13, 1787

Virginia Declaration of Rights

“That no free government, or the blessing of liberty, can be preserved to any people, but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue, and by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.” – From Virginia Declaration of Rights, June 12, 1776 

George Washington

“‘Tis substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule indeed extends with more or less force to every species of free Government….Promote then as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.” – From “Farewell Address,” September 19, 1796

Thomas Jefferson

“Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels, in the form of kings, to govern him? Let history answer this question.” – From “First Inaugural Address,” March 4, 1801

Abraham Lincoln

“It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” – From “Gettysburg Address,” November 19, 1863

“When the white man governs himself that is self-government; but when he governs himself, and also governs another man, that is more than self-government—that is despotism. If the negro is a man, why then my ancient faith teaches me that ‘all men are created equal;’ and that there can be no moral right in connection with one man’s making a slave of another.” – From “Speech on the Kansas Nebraska Act at Peoria, Illinois,” October 16, 1854

Alexander Hamilton

“The natural cure for an ill administration in a popular or representative constitution is a change of men.” – From Federalist 21, December 12, 1787

Ronald Reagan

“From time to time, we have been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. But if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden. The solutions we seek must be equitable, with no one group singled out to pay a higher price.” – From “First Inaugural Address,” January 20, 1981

John F. Kennedy

“In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty.” – From “Inaugural Address,” January 20, 1961

Alexis de Tocqueville

“When the people govern, it is necessary that they be happy in order for them not to overturn the state. Misery produces in them ambition does in kings.” – From Democracy in America, Vol. 1, Part 2, Chapter 9, 1835

Montesquieu

"The great advantage of representatives is their capacity to discuss public business. For this the people [as a body] are quite unfitted, and this is among the greatest disadvantages of democracy." – From Spirit of the Laws, 1748

Quotes from the American Founding Era

George Washington

“That it is indispensable to the happiness of the individual States, that there should be lodged somewhere, a Supreme Power to regulate and govern the general concerns of the Confederated Republic, without which the Union cannot be of long duration. That there must be a faithful and pointed compliance on the part of every State, with the late proposals and demands of Congress, or the most fatal consequences will ensue.” – From “Circular to the States,” June 14, 1783

“And since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the Republican model of Government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.” – From “First Inaugural Address,” April 30, 1789

“The assimilation of the principles, opinions and manners of our countrymen, by the common education of a portion of our Youth from every quarter, well deserves attention. The more homogeneous our citizens can be made in these particulars, the greater will be our prospect of permanent union; and a primary object of such a national institution should be, the education of our Youth in the science of Government. In a Republic, what species of knowledge can be equally important? And what duty more pressing on its Legislature, than to patronize a plan for communicating it to those, who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country?” – From “Eighth Annual Message to Congress,” December 7, 1796

John Adams

“Let us not be bubbled then out of our reverence and obedience to government on one hand; nor out of our right to think and act for ourselves in our own department on the other. The steady management of a good government is the most anxious, arduous, and hazardous vocation on this side the grave. Let us not encumber those, therefore, who have spirit enough to embark in such an enterprise, with any kind of opposition that the preservation or perfection of our mild, our happy, our most excellent constitution, does not soberly demand.” – From “On Self-Delusion,” August 29, 1768

“I am very willing to agree with you in fancying, that in the greatest Improvements of society, Government will be in the Republican form. It is a fixed Principle with me that all Good Government is and must be Republican….Whenever I Use the Word Republic, with approbation I mean a Government, in which the People have, collectively or by Representation, an essential share in the Sovereignty.” – From “Letter to Samuel Adams,” October 18, 1790

“If I venture to say that if a preference, upon principle, of a free republican government, formed upon long and serious reflection, after a diligent and impartial inquiry after truth; if an attachment to the Constitution of the United States, and a conscientious determination to support it until it shall be altered by the judgments and wishes of the people, expressed in the mode prescribed in it….Can enable me in any degree to comply with your wishes, it shall be my strenuous endeavor that this sagacious injunction of the two Houses shall not be without effect.” – From “Inaugural Address,” March 4, 1797

“The Soverign Judgment and Will can be determined, known and declared only by Majorities. This Will, this decision, is Sometimes determined by a Single Vote; often by two or three; very rarely by a large Majority; Scarcely ever by an Unanimous Suffrage. And from the impossibility of keeping together at all times the same number of Voters, the Majorities are apt to [waver] from day to day, and Swing like Pendulums from Side to Side.” – From “Letter to John Taylor,” April 15, 1814

Alexander Hamilton

“The right of equal suffrage among the States is another exceptionable part of the Confederation. Every idea of proportion and every rule of fair representation conspire to condemn a principle, which gives to Rhode Island an equal weight in the scale of power with Massachusetts, or Connecticut, or New York….Its operation contradicts that fundamental maxim of republican government, which requires that the sense of the majority should prevail.” – From Federalist 22, December 14, 1787

Thomas Jefferson

“There must doubtless be an unhappy influence on the manners of our people produced by the existence of slavery among us. The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this, and learn to imitate it; for man is an imitative animal.” – From “Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XVIII,” 1781

“It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigour. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution.” – From “Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XIX,” 1781

“In fine, my friend, you must mend your manners. This is not a world to live at random in as you do. To avoid these eternal distresses, to which you are forever exposing us, you must learn to look forward before you take a step which may interest our peace.” – From “Letter to Maria Cosway,” October 12, 1786

“I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccessful rebellions indeed generally establish the encroachments on the rights of the people which have produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions, as not to discourage them too much. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.” – From “Letter to James Madison,” January 30, 1787

“We have been fellow-labourers and fellow-sufferers, and heaven has rewarded us with a happy issue from our struggles. It rests now with ourselves alone to enjoy in peace and concord the blessings of self-government, so long denied to mankind to shew by example the sufficiency of human reason for the care of human affairs and that the will of the majority, the Natural law of every society, is the only sure guardian of the rights of man.” – From “Response to the Address of Welcome by the Citizens of Albemarle County,” February 12, 1790

“Convinced that the republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind, my prayers and efforts shall be cordially contributed to the support of that we have so happily established. It is indeed an animating thought that, while we are securing the rights of ourselves and our posterity, we are pointing out the way to struggling nations who wish, like us, to emerge from their tyrannies also. Heaven help their struggles, and lead them, as it has done us, triumphantly thro’ them.” – From “Letter to William Hunter,” March 11, 1790

“We owe every other sacrifice to ourselves, to our federal brethren, and to the world at large, to pursue with temper and perseverance the great experiment which shall prove that man is capable of living in society, governing itself by laws self-imposed, and securing to its members the enjoyment of life, liberty, property and peace; and further to shew that even when the government of its choice shall shew a tendency to degeneracy, we are not at once to despair but that the will & the watchfulness of its sounder parts will reform it’s aberrations, recall it to its original and legitimate principles, and restrain it within the rightful limits of self-government.” – From “Letter to James Madison,” December 24, 1825

James Madison

“In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.” – From Federalist 51, February 6, 1788

“This view of the subject must particularly recommend a proper federal system to all the sincere and considerate friends of republican government: since it shows, that in exact proportion as the territory of the union may be formed into more circumscribed confederacies, or states, oppressive combinations of a majority will be facilitated; the best security under the republican form, for the rights of every class of citizens, will be diminished; and consequently, the stability and independence of some member of the government, the only other security, must be proportionally increased.” – From Federalist 51, February 6, 1788

“As there is a degree of depravity in mankind which requires a certain degree of circumspection and distrust, so there are other qualities in human nature which justify a certain portion of esteem and confidence. Republican government presupposes the existence of these qualities in a higher degree than any other form.” – From Federalist 55, February 13, 1788

Samuel Adams

“Let Divines, and Philosophers, Statesmen and Patriots unite their endeavors to renovate the Age by impressing the Minds of Men with the importance of educating their little Boys, and Girls—of inculcating in the Minds of Youth the fear, and Love of the Deity, and universal Philanthropy; and in subordination to these great principles the Love of their Country—of instructing them in the Art of self-government, without which they never can act a wise part in the Government of Societies great, or small.” – From “Letter to John Adams,” October 4, 1790

Quotes from Alexis de Tocqueville

Alexis de Tocqueville

“The emigrants or, as they so well called themselves, the pilgrims, belonged to that sect in England whose austere principles had brought the name Puritan to be given it. Puritanism was not only a religious doctrine; it also blended at several points with the most absolute democratic and republican theories.” – From Democracy in America, Vol. 1, Part 1, Chapter 2, 1835

“Americans had the chance of birth working for them: their fathers long since brought equality of conditions and of intelligence onto the soil they inhabited, from which the democratic republic would one day issue as from its natural source. This is still not all; with a republican social state, they will to their descendants the most appropriate habits, ideas, and mores to make a republic flourish.” – From Democracy in America, Vol. 1, Part 2, Chapter 9, 1835

“Democracy inclines men not to get close to those like themselves; but democratic revolutions dispose them to flee each other and to perpetuate in the heart of equality the hatreds to which inequality gave birth. The great advantage of Americans is to have arrived at democracy without having to suffer democratic revolutions, and to be born equal instead of becoming so.” – From Democracy in America, Vol. 2, Part 2, Chapter 3, 1840

“The free institutions that the inhabitants of the United State possess and the political rights of which they make so much use to recall to each citizen constantly and in a thousand ways that he lives in society. At every moment they bring his mind back toward the idea that the duty as well as the interest of men is to render themselves useful to those like them.” – From Democracy in America, Vol. 2, Part 2, Chapter 4, 1840

“In America I encountered sort of associations of which, I confess, I had no idea, and I often admired the infinite art with which the inhabitants of the United States managed to fix a common goal to the efforts of many men and to get them to advance it freely.” – From Democracy in America, Vol. 2, Part 2, Chapter 5, 1840

“Americans…are pleased to explain almost all the actions of their life with the aid of self-interest understood; they complacently show how the enlightened love of themselves constantly brings them to aid each other and disposes them willingly to sacrifice a part of their time and their wealth to the good of the state.” – From Democracy in America, Vol. 2, Part 2, Chapter 5, 1840

Quotes from Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

 “Near eighty years ago we began by declaring that all men are created equal; but now from that beginning we have run down to the other declaration, that for SOME men to enslave OTHERS is a “sacred right of self-government.” These principles cannot stand together. They are as opposite as God and mammon; and whoever holds to the one, must despise the other.” – From “Speech on the Kansas Nebraska Act at Peoria, Illinois,” October 16, 1854

“The doctrine of self-government is right—absolutely and eternally right—but it has no just application, as here attempted. Or perhaps I should rather say that whether it has such just application depends upon whether a negro is not or is a man. If he is not a man, why in that case, he who is a man may, as a matter of self-government, do just as he pleases with him. But if the negro is a man, is it not to that extent, a total destruction of self-government, to say that he too shall not govern himself?” – From “Speech on the Kansas Nebraska Act at Peoria, Illinois,” October 16, 1854

“What I do say is, that no man is good enough to govern another man, without that other’s consent. I say this is the leading principle—the sheet anchor of American republicanism. Our Declaration of Independence says: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, DERIVING THEIR JUST POWERS FROM THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED.” – From “Speech on the Kansas Nebraska Act at Peoria, Illinois,” October 16, 1854

Quotes from 20^th and 21^st Century Americans

Calvin Coolidge

“Our country was conceived in the theory of local self-government. It has been dedicated by long practice to that wise and beneficent policy. It is the foundation principle of our system of liberty. It makes the largest promise to the freedom and development of the individual. Its preservation is worth all the effort and all the sacrifice that it may cost.” – From “Address at Arlington National Cemetery,” May 30, 1925

John F. Kennedy

“And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.” – From “Inaugural Address,” January 20, 1961

Justice Antonin Scalia

"If you think aficionados of a living Constitution want to bring you flexibility, think again. You think the death penalty is a good idea? Persuade your fellow citizens to adopt it. You want a right to abortion? Persuade your fellow citizens and enact it. That's flexibility." – From "Speech at Woodrow Wilson Center," March 14, 2005

Justice John Paul Stevens

“At bottom, the court's opinion is thus a rejection of the common sense of the American people, who have recognized a need to prevent corporations from undermining self-government since the founding, and who have fought against the distinctive corrupting potential of corporate electioneering since the days of Theodore Roosevelt. It is a strange time to repudiate that common sense. While American democracy is imperfect, few outside the majority of this court would have thought its flaws included a dearth of corporate money in politics.” – From Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 2010

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