Whatever you may think of the proposed mosque and community center lost in the heat of the debate has been a basic question: Should government attempt to deny private citizens the right to build a house of worship on private property based on their particular religion?

The fundamental purpose of government is to protect its citizens.

Our citizens are tired of big government raising their taxes and cooking up new ways to micromanage their lives our citizens are tired of big government killing jobs with their do-gooder policies. In short the people are Fed Up!

The Imperial German Government will not expect the Government of the United States to omit any word or any act necessary to the performance of its sacred duty of maintaining the rights of the United States and its citizens and of safeguarding their free exercise and enjoyment.

Of all tasks of government the most basic is to protect its citizens against violence.

Government works less efficiently when it begins to grow out of control and takes on more and more of the responsibilities that belong to the citizens.

Most Americans aren't the sort of citizens the Founding Fathers expected they are contented serfs. Far from being active critics of government they assume that its might makes it right.

A pure democracy is a society consisting of a small number of citizens who assemble and administer the government in person.

By a continuing process of inflation government can confiscate secretly and unobserved an important part of the wealth of their citizens.

We need to understand that we as citizens and as a government in any community throughout this country have no more important obligation than to educate those who are going to replace us.

And a special thank you to the citizens of Massachusetts: You are paying all the taxes creating all the jobs raising all the children. This government is yours. Thank you for letting me serve you. I love this job.

We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases while the citizens may act only by permission which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history the stage of rule by brute force.

Bad officials are the ones elected by good citizens who do not vote.

We are persuaded that good Christians will always be good citizens and that where righteousness prevails among individuals the Nation will be great and happy. Thus while just government protects all in their religious rights true religion affords to government it's surest support.

Italy has piled up huge public debt because the successive governments were too close to the life of ordinary citizens too willing to please the requests of everybody thereby acting against the interests of future generations.

Because the time has come well and truly come for all peoples of our great country for all citizens of our great commonwealth for all Australians - those who are indigenous and those who are not - to come together to reconcile and together build a new future for our nation.

To the citizens of Israel I say: we have passed difficult years faced the most painful experiences and overcame them. The future lies before us. We are required to take difficult and controversial steps but we must not miss the opportunity to try to achieve what we have wished for for so many years: security tranquillity and peace.

But there's one thing we are not going to compromise at all: when it comes to security of Israeli citizens and the State of Israel there are not going to be any compromises - not now and not in the future.

Let the workers organize. Let the toilers assemble. Let their crystallized voice proclaim their injustices and demand their privileges. Let all thoughtful citizens sustain them for the future of Labor is the future of America.

On one side citizens have great respect for the United States they have a great feeling of friendship. That is solid. But in the opposition and in the political arena I often find criticism of the closeness of relations with the United States. That is a reality.

It is not natural or inevitable that half the world goes hungry that the freedom of markets trumps protection of the planet or that citizens' rights come second to those of corporations.

If freedom's best friends cannot unify around a realistic actionable program of fundamental change one that attracts and persuades a broad majority of our fellow citizens big change will not come.

My heart goes out to the brave citizens of Syria who each day risk and even sacrifice their lives to achieve freedom from a murderous regime. We in Israel welcome the historic struggle to forge democratic peace-loving governments in our region.

And what do Democrats stand for if they are so ready to defame concerned citizens as the 'mob' - a word betraying a Marie Antoinette delusion of superiority to ordinary mortals. I thought my party was populist attentive to the needs and wishes of those outside the power structure. And as a product of the 1960s I thought the Democratic party was passionately committed to freedom of thought and speech.