Now more than ever the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption.
Interpretation
The character of Congress reflects the people's attitudes; if Congress is flawed, it is due to public tolerance of these flaws.
This quote by James A. Garfield emphasizes the vital role the citizenry plays in shaping the quality and integrity of their government. It suggests that if the legislative body exhibits ignorance, recklessness, or corruption, it is a direct result of the people's complacency and acceptance of such behaviors. Therefore, it urges individuals to be more active and critical participants in democracy, holding their representatives accountable for their actions and standards.
In practice
During a town hall meeting about local governance, someone could quote Garfield to emphasize the need for civic engagement.
Statistical science is indispensable to modern statesmanship. In legislation as in physical science it is beginning to be understood that we can control terrestrial forces only by obeying their laws. The legislator must formulate in his statutes not only the national will, but also those great laws of social life revealed by statistics.
I am trying to do two things: dare to be a radical and not a fool, which is a matter of no small difficulty.
Justice and goodwill will outlast passion.
If the power to do hard work is not a skill, it's the best possible substitute for it.
Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained.
I never meet a ragged boy in the street without feeling that i may owe him a salute, for I know not what possibilities may be buttoned up under his coat.
Social Security, which transformed life for the elderly in this country, was 'socialist.' The concept of the 'minimum wage' was seen as a radical intrusion into the marketplace and was described as 'socialist.'
Government ought to be as much open to improvement as anything which appertains to man, instead of which it has been monopolized from age to age, by the most ignorant and vicious of the human race. Need we any other proof of their wretched management, than the excess of debts and taxes with which every nation groans, and the quarrels into which they have precipitated the world?"
Politics - I don't know why, but they seem to have a tendency to separate us, to keep us from one another, while nature is always and ever making efforts to bring us together.
Politics hates a vacuum. If it isn't filled with hope, someone will fill it with fear.
Power must never be trusted without a check.
No, Governor Romney, corporations are not people. People have hearts, they have kids, they get jobs, they get sick, they cry, they dance. They live, they love, and they die. And that matters. That matters because we don't run this country for corporations, we run it for people.
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