Civic Values
The Being an American Essay Contest topic challenges you to reflect on the civic values Americans share and decide on the most important one(s). To help get you started, take a look at these quotations on a number of civic values. As you explore them, think about the ways you have and will put these values into practice as an American citizen. Don't feel you should or should not write about the civic values on this list -- they are just here to get you thinking. For more information about each value, please click on the corresponding link.
Courage
Respect
Consideration
Perseverance
Industry
Responsibility
Justice
Initiative
Moderation
Integrity
*Important Note: These are not the only civic values that you can write about in your essay. Choose the civic value that you believe is most essential to being an American. These values are listed to help you begin thinking about which value you believe is most essential.
Courage (more info.)
The gods looked with favour on superior courage.
—Tacitus, Roman historian
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection. ’Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.
—Thomas Paine, American patriot
Courage is doing what you’re afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you’re scared.
—Eddie Rickenbacker, American WWI hero
One man with courage makes a majority.
—Andrew Jackson, 7th President of the United States
Courage is of the heart by derivation. But fear is of the soul.
—Robert Frost, American poet
Respect (more info.)
In republics, the great danger is, that the majority may not sufficiently respect the rights of the minority.
—James Madison, 4th President of the United States
I have learned to respect ideas, wherever they come from.
—Leo Burnett, American advertising executive
The most important phase of living with a person [is] respect for that person as an individual.
—Millicent Carey Mcintosh, American educator
You don’t have to love them. You just have to respect their rights.
—Edward Koch, former Mayor of New York City
Respect your fellow human being, treat them fairly, disagree with them honestly, enjoy their friendship, explore your thoughts about one another candidly, work together for a common goal and help one another achieve it. No destructive lies. No ridiculous fears. No debilitating anger.
—Bill Bradley, American basketball player and senator
Respect is not fear and awe; it . . . [is] the ability to see a person as he is, to be aware of his unique individuality. Respect, thus, implies the absence of exploitation. I want the loved person to grow and unfold for his own sake, and in his own ways, and not for the purpose of serving me.
—Erich Fromm, American psychologist
Respect—not tolerance—must be our goal if we would diminish prejudice in our time.
— Selma G. Hirsch, American scientist
Consideration (more info.)
For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions, even on important subjects, which I once thought right but found to be otherwise.
—Benjamin Franklin, American statesman
Opinions are formed in a process of open discussion and public debate, and where no opportunity for the forming of opinions exists, there may be moods—moods of the masses and moods of individuals, the latter no less fickle and unreliable than the former—but no opinion.
—Hannah Arendt, American historian
Freedom is hammered out on the anvil of discussion, dissent, and debate.
—Hubert H. Humphrey, Vice President of the United States
The liberally educated person is one who is able to resist the easy and preferred answers, not because he is obstinate but because he knows others worthy of consideration.
—Harold Bloom, American educator
If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.
—Noam Chomsky, American linguist
This is the great truth life has to teach us . . . that gratification of our individual desires and expression of our personal preferences without consideration for their effect upon others brings in the end nothing but ruin and devastation.
—Hortense Odlum, American businesswoman
Perseverance (more info.)
Perseverance is more prevailing than violence; and many things which cannot be overcome when they are together, yield themselves up when taken little by little.
—Plutarch, Greek biographer
Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.
—John Quincy Adams, 6th President of the United States
Press on: nothing in the world can take the place of perseverance. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
—Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States
Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American poet
Just remember, you can do anything you set your mind to, but it takes action, perseverance, and facing your fears.
—Gillian Anderson, American actress
I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.
—John D. Rockefeller, American philanthropist
Industry (more info.)
Life grants nothing to us mortals without hard work.
—Horace, Roman poet
A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned—this is the sum of good government.
—Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States
Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don’t turn up at all.
—Sam Ewing, American humorist
There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.
—Colin Powell, U.S. general and Secretary of State
Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.
—Stephen King, American novelist
The miracle, or the power, that elevates the few is to be found in their industry, application, and perseverance under the prompting of a brave, determined spirit.
—Mark Twain [Samuel Clemens], American author
There is joy in work. There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something.
—Henry Ford, American businessman
Responsibility (more info.)
God has entrusted me with myself.
—Epictetus, Greek philosopher
The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.
—George Washington, 1st President of the United States
You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.
—Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States
Nothing strengthens the judgment and quickens the conscience like individual responsibility.
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton, American suffragist
I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; I will not refuse to do something I can do.
—Helen Keller, American author
I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.
—John D. Rockefeller, American philanthropist
Man must cease attributing his problems to his environment, and learn again to exercise his will—his personal responsibility.
—Albert Schweitzer, American philosopher and philanthropist
We demand entire freedom of action and then expect the government in some miraculous way to save us from the consequences of our own acts. . . . Self-government means self-reliance.
—Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States
The one predominant duty is to find one’s work and do it.
—Charlotte Perkins Gilman, American suffragist and economist
Justice (more info.)
Justice turns the scale, bringing to some learning through suffering.
—Aeschylus, Greek tragedian
Justice means minding one’s own business and not meddling with other men’s concerns.
—Plato, Greek philosopher
At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.
—Aristotle, Greek philosopher
Justice is the set and constant purpose which gives every man his due.
—Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman orator
[I]t is proper you should understand what I deem the essential principles of our Government.... Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever persuasion, religious or political....
—Thomas Jefferson, Third President of the United States
Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit.
—James Madison, Fourth President of the United States
Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world?
—Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
—Martin Luther King, Jr., American civil rights leader
In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law . . . That would lead to anarchy. An individual who breaks a law that his conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.
—Martin Luther King, Jr., American civil rights leader
Initiative (more info.)
The beginning is the chiefest part of any work.
—Plato, Greek philosopher
Begin—to begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finished.
—Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor and philosopher
Have you something to do to-morrow; do it to-day.
—Benjamin Franklin, American Statesman
Our lives begin to end the day we remain silent about things that matter.
—Martin Luther King, Jr., American civil rights leader
You’ve got to take the initiative and play your game . . . confidence makes the difference.
—Chris Evert, American tennis champion
Time is neutral and does not change things. With courage and initiative, leaders change things.
—Jesse Jackson, American civil rights leader
Moderation (more info.)
If one oversteps the bounds of moderation, the greatest pleasures cease to please.
—Epictetus, Greek Stoic philosopher
Moderation, which consists in an indifference about little things, and in a prudent and well-proportioned zeal about things of importance, can proceed from nothing but true knowledge, which has its foundation in self-acquaintance.
—Plato, Greek philosopher
It is the sign of a great mind to dislike greatness, and prefer things in measure to things in excess.
—Seneca, Roman politician and Stoic philosopher
There is moderation in everything.
—Horace, Roman poet
Virtue is a habit of the mind, consistent with nature and moderation and reason.
—Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman author, orator, and politician
Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.
—Thomas Paine, American patriot
Integrity (more info.)
No man can purchase his virtue too dear, for it is the only thing whose value must ever increase with the price it has cost us. Our integrity is never worth so much as when we have parted with our all to keep it.
—Ovid, Roman poet
the foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens and command the respect of the world.
—George Washington, 1st President of the United States
The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States
Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, American author
Our success or failure, in whatever office we may hold, will be measured by the answers to four questions— were we truly men of courage? were we truly men of judgment? were we truly men of integrity? were we truly men of dedication?
—John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States
If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters.
—Alan Simpson, U.S. Senator
Arguments of convenience lack integrity and inevitably trip you up.
—Donald Rumsfeld, U.S. Secretary of Defense
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