Citizen Engagement Quotes

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.

We need a nation of minutemen – citizens who are not only prepared to take up arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as a basic purpose of their daily life, and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom.

Democracy is like a street car. You get off when you reach your destination.

The press should be not only a collective propagandist and a collective agitator, but also a collective organizer of the masses.

In the long-run every Government is the exact symbol of its People, with their wisdom and unwisdom; we have to say, Like People like Government.

Technology and social media have brought power back to the people.

Democracy is like a streetcar. When you come to your stop, you get off.

Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote...that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.

It's not the voting that's democracy; it's the counting.

Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.

A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce, or a tragedy, or perhaps both.

The world has come around to the view that democracy is essential for full human development. And only education and skill development can make this possible.

13 years after Indonesia began devolving power from the federal government to hundreds of sub provincial units, the link between local and national political interests have become extremely tenuous… although locally elected politicians may be delivering things that people want in their own back yards, they are not, collectively meeting the nation’s needs.

If governments did not mislead their citizens so often, there would be less need for secrecy, and if leaders knew they could not rely on keeping the public in the dark about what they are doing, they would have a powerful incentive to behave better.

Democracy is about criticism.

I'm not a politician by profession. I am a citizen who decided I had to be personally involved in order to stand up for my own values and beliefs. My candidacy is based on my record, and for that matter, my entire life.

Congress’ duty to the voters requires it to monitor how military appropriations are spent and to investigate the army’s failures if it was not willing to investigate itself. What are we to do? Sit idle during all the period that the [Civil] war is in progress?

Participatory democracies. Open economies. Web-based communication. All American innovations to the great conundrums of the globe.

If somebody asks me where I stand, I tell them. And that's not a way to get elected, generally. Nobody's going to elect me president of the United States. What I'd like to do is to be able to influence the dialogue. I'm a citizen

Change doesn't come from Washington. Change comes to Washington

Ask not what you can do for your country; ask what your government is doing to you.

Voting is the first duty of democracy.

The increasing diversification of media ecosystems after decades of state control, along with new digital tools that allow for greater citizen engagement, have led to a dramatic reshaping of the dynamics between citizens, media, and government.

We hope President Obama will now respect the will of the people, change course, and commit to making the changes they are demanding. To the extent he is willing to do this, we are ready to work with him.

Digital India is about empowering the citizen - it's mobile, it's cloud, it's storage - we are in all those areas.