One half of the world's people live on less than two dollars a day. This should concern our national security policy as well as our conscience.
Lee H. HamiltonRead
Our democracy is not a product but a continual process. It is preserved not by monuments but deeds. Sometimes it needs refining; sometimes it needs amending; sometimes it needs defending. Always, it needs improving.
Interpretation
Democracy requires ongoing effort and improvement rather than passive acceptance.
This quote emphasizes that democracy is an active and dynamic process that involves continuous work to enhance and protect it. It suggests that citizens must contribute to the democratic process through actions and advocacy, rather than simply relying on existing structures or symbols. Effective democracy requires constant refinement, defense, and proactive improvement by its participants.
In practice
In a speech about civic engagement, one might use this quote to inspire action.
One half of the world's people live on less than two dollars a day. This should concern our national security policy as well as our conscience.
The dangers of unexamined and unregulated monopoly power, particularly in the state executive, are hardly news. The right reaction is not passive acquiescence.
I will venture to assert that no combination of designing men under heaven will be capable of making a government unpopular which is in its principles a wise and good one, and vigorous in its operations.
All political power comes from the barrel of either guns, pussy, or opium pipes, and people seem to like it that way.
He mocks the people who proposes that the government shall protect the rich and that they in turn will care for the laboring poor.
Politics ought to be the part-time profession of every citizen who would protect the rights and privileges of free people and who would preserve what is good and fruitful in our national heritage.
These examples, though as unfit for the imitation, as they are repugnant to the genius of America, are notwithstanding . . . very instructive proofs of the necessity of some institution that will blend stability with liberty.
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