Representation Quotes

“But also the constituency determines the vote of the representative. He is not only representative, but participant. Like can onlybe known by like. The reason why he knows about them is, that he is of them; he has just come out of nature, or from being a part of the thing.”

“The people know that they need in their representative much more than talent, namely, the power to make his talent trusted.”

“Our ancient laws expressly declare that those who are but delegates themselves shall not delegate to others powers which require judgment and integrity in their exercise.”

“Green in nature is one thing, green in literature another. Nature and letters seem to have a natural antipathy; bring them together and they tear each other to pieces.”

“When the representative body have lost the confidence of their constituents, when they have notoriously made sale of their most valuable rights, when they have assumed to themselves powers which the people never put into their hands, then indeed their continuing in office becomes dangerous to the state”

“I'm a reflection of the community.”

“The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which other rights are protected. To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery, for slavery consists in being subject to the will of another, and he that has not a vote in the election of representatives is in this case.”

“All men can understand what representation is; and that it must necessarily include a variety of knowledge and talents.”

“The party belongs to the millions of the rank and file. It does not belong to the handful of politicians who have assumed fraudulently to upset the will of the rank and file. The action of these men is in no sense "regular," as they claim it to be.... theft and dishonesty cannot give and never shall give a title to regularity.”

“It is not because a part of the government is elective, that makes it less a despotism, if the persons so elected, possess afterwards, as a parliament, unlimited powers. Election, in this case, becomes separated from representation, and the candidates are candidates for despotism.”

“The representative system of government is calculated to produce the wisest laws, by collecting wisdom where it can be found.”

“In the legislature, the House of Representatives is chosen by less than half the people, and not at all in proportion to those who do choose. The Senate are still more disproportionate, and for long terms of irresponsibility. In the Executive, the Governor is entirely independent of the choice of the people, and of their control; his Council equally so, and at best but a fifth wheel to a wagon. In the Judiciary, the judges of the highest courts are dependent on none but themselves.”

“My power vanishes into thin air the instant that my fellow citizens, who are straight and honest, cease to believe that I represent them and fight for what is straight and honest. That is all the strength that I have.”

“I, for one, resent it when a representative of the people refers to you and me, the free men and women of this country, as 'the masses.'”

“True democracy is not inconsistent with a few persons representing the spirit, the hope and the aspirations of those whom they claim to represent.”

“The men who carry their points do not need to inquire of their constituents what they should say, but are themselves the country which they represent: nowhere are its emotions or opinions so instant and so true as in them; nowhere so pure from a selfish infusion.”

“When real independence comes to India, the Congress and the League will be nowhere unless they represent the real opinion of the country.”

“I had to prove you could be a new kind of black man. I had to show the world.”

“I want to be representative of my race-the human race. I have a chance to show how kind we can be, how intelligent and generous we can be.”

“I was always curious. I always wondered why Tarzan is the King of the Jungle in Africa, he was white.”

“Shakespeare must be a black girl.”

“We have to hear the stories of women at all ages of their lives in order to really present a picture of what it felt like to be alive in our time. That's what our job is as writers is to present that and create it. Our job as writers isn't to make as much money as we can. Our job is to create a record of this time. That's why if you leave out women and the stories of women, we failed at our mission. All of us. Men and women.”

“Democracy can only represent the average if not less than the average.”

“The very essence of democracy is that every person represents all the varied interests which compose the nation.”

“[ Negro leaders] never let the white man know exactly what black people are thinking.”