Eric Liu Quotes

How could I remain a spectator while Singapore faces such complex challenges? How could I not step forward when I know I have more to contribute to the country we all worked to build?

Citizens are not born. They are raised.

Being a citizen in a democracy involves more than just voting. It means being involved for the common whole.

In the great fulfillment, we must have a citizenship less concerned about what the government can do for it, and more anxious about what it can do for the nation.

The very right to vote imposes on me the duty to instruct myself in public affairs however little influence my voice may have in them.

America is a country which produces citizens who will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but won't cross the street to vote.

There is a long and honorable tradition of citizens in service to their nation that goes back at least as far as Cincinnatus, the Roman citizen who, more than once answered his country's call, then returned to his farm and his family and his work.

We need a new kind of citizenship, so that we can see citizens as themselves earning the rank of patriot because of their involvement in their community affairs....We as a society need to be encouraging people to focus not just on individual wants but on serving the larger community.

We are bound by ideals that teach us what it means to be citizens. Every child must be taught these ideals. Every citizen must uphold them.... I ask you to be citizens. Citizens, not spectators. Citizens, not subjects. Responsible citizens building communities of service and a nation of character.

The job of a citizen is to keep his mouth open.

Democracy is not just voting for your leaders; it's really premised upon ordinary citizens understanding the issues.

Citizenship is a tough occupation which obliges the citizen to make his own informed opinion and stand by it.

Conservatives forget that citizenship is more than a thing to withhold from immigrants. Progressives forget it's more than a set of rights.

Talk of citizenship today is often thin and tinny. The word has a faintly old-fashioned feel to it when used in everyday conversation. When evoked in national politics, it's usually accompanied by the shrill whine of a descending culture-war mortar.

We are not merely historians but also and always citizens.

I think I've been a great citizen.

I always preach that you have to be active as a citizen no matter what, and some people just voting as an excuse not to do anything.

There can be no daily democracy without daily citizenship.

As a citizen, you need to know how to be a part of it, how to express yourself - and not just by voting.

As a citizen of a community, if you never vote or engage, don't be surprised when the outcome doesn't serve your interests; you've never done anything to push things in the right direction.

I authored the Universal National Service Act because I believe that everyone in America should contribute to the greater good of America.

As immigrants, we understand better than most that to be an American is a privilege that conveys not just rights but responsibilities.

The best results in the operation of a government wherein every citizen has a share largely depend upon a proper limitation of purely partisan zeal and effort and a correct appreciation of the time when the heat of the partisan should be merged in the patriotism of the citizen.

Democracy is not something you believe in or a place to hang your hat, but it's something you do. You participate. If you stop doing it, democracy crumbles.

I just consider it a part of good citizenship.