The brave man, inattentive to his duty, is worth little more to his country than the coward who deserts her in the hour of danger.
Andrew JacksonRead
The great constitutional corrective in the hands of the people against usurpation of power, or corruption by their agents is the right of suffrage; and this when used with calmness and deliberation will prove strong enough.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the power of voting as a means for the people to protect themselves against abuse of authority.
Andrew Jackson's quote highlights the importance of suffrage, or the right to vote, as a crucial tool for the public to counteract the potential misuse of power by their representatives. He underscores that when citizens exercise their voting rights thoughtfully and peacefully, it serves as a formidable check against corruption and tyranny, reinforcing the role of democracy in maintaining balance and justice in governance.
Themes
SuffrageVotingDemocracyPowerCorruptionPeople
In practice
Example use cases
During a political rally to encourage voter turnout.
More from Andrew Jackson
All quotes →The planter, the farmer, the mechanic, and the laborer...form the great body of the people of the United States they are the bone and sinew of the country men who love liberty and desire nothing but equal rights and equal laws.
Andrew JacksonRead
There never was a woman like her. She was gentle as a dove and brave as a lioness... The memory of my mother and her teachings were, after all, the only capital I had to start life with, and on that capital I have made my way.
Andrew JacksonRead
I feel in the depths of my soul that it is the highest, most sacred, and most irreversible part of my obligation to preserve the union of these states, although it may cost me my life.
Andrew JacksonRead
When death comes, he respects neither age nor merit. He sweeps from the earthly existence the sick and the strong, the rich and the poor, and should teach us to live to be prepared for death.
Andrew JacksonRead
In a free government the demand for moral qualities should be made superior to that of talents.
Andrew JacksonRead
Similar quotes
When Rumsfeld gets up on television and says we have definitive intelligence that al Qaeda is working with Iraq, how is an ordinary citizen supposed to react? They won't tell you the evidence, and when anyone asks, they say, 'Well, you know: It's secret.'
Noam ChomskyRead
Politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.
Charles De GaulleRead
We have over a hundred political detainees, men against whom we are unable to prove anything in a court of law. Nearly 50 of them are men who gave us a great deal of anxiety during the years of Confrontation because they were Malay extremists. Your life and this dinner would not be what it is if my colleagues and I had decided to play it according to the rules of the game.
Lee Kuan YewRead
If we don't have an informed electorate we don't have a democracy. So I don't care how people get the information, as long as they get it. I'm just doing it my particular way and I feel lucky I can do it the way I want to do it.
Jim LehrerRead
Arguments can always be found to turn desire into policy.
Barbara TuchmanRead
Ankh-Morpork had dallied with many forms of government and had ended up with that form of democracy known as One Man, One Vote. The Patrician was the Man; he had the Vote.
Terry PratchettRead