I am acutely aware that you have not elected me as your President by your ballots, so I ask you to confirm me with your prayers.
Gerald R. FordRead
Our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here, the people rule.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of laws over individual authority in governing a nation.
Gerald R. Ford's quote highlights the foundational principle of democratic governance, where laws are created and upheld by the people's consent, rather than the arbitrary power of individuals. This assertion reflects the value of a lawful society in which every citizen is subject to the same rules, ensuring fairness and justice, and underscores the idea that the authority of government is derived from the will of the people.
In practice
During a discussion on the importance of the legal system in democratic societies.
I am acutely aware that you have not elected me as your President by your ballots, so I ask you to confirm me with your prayers.
For millions of men and women, the church has been the hospital for the soul, the school for the mind and the safe depository for moral ideas.
History and experience tell us that moral progress comes not in comfortable and complacent times, but out of trial and confusion.
Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French.
In a country where the sole employer is the State, opposition means death by slow starvation. The old principle: who does not work shall not eat, has been replaced by a new one: who does not obey shall not eat.
I am not political. It is not my job. But I would be happy if politicians could read my work and draw some conclusions from it.
I may find Saddam Hussein's regime abhorrent - any normal person would - but the survival of it is in his hands.
In handing over the Government of India to these so-called political classes, we are handing over to men of straw, of whom, in a few years, no trace will remain.
You will find that the State is the kind of organization which, though it does big things badly, does small things badly, too.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.