Sovereignty Quotes: Expressions of Power and Independence

"Sovereignty is not given, it is taken"

Kemal Ataturk, Soldier

"For the sake of goodness and love, man shall let death have no sovereignty over his thoughts"

Thomas Mann, Writer

"The purpose of the United Nations should be to protect the essential sovereignty of nations, large and small"

Nikita Khrushchev, Statesman

"In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery?"

Saint Augustine, Saint

"The sovereignty of scriptures of all religions must come to an end if we want to have a united integrated modern India"

B. R. Ambedkar, Politician

"The European nations' loss of sovereignty to the EU should be a warning to Americans"

Phyllis Schlafly, Activist

"The unionists also for their part, want to minimise the potential for change, not only on the equality agenda but on the issues of sovereignty and ending the union"

Gerry Adams, Politician

"Until the control of the issue of currency and credit is restored to government and recognized as its most conspicuous and sacred responsibility, all talks of the sovereignty of Parliament and of democracy is idle and futile"

William Lyon Mackenzie King, Politician

"But if republicans are to prevail, if the peace process is to be successfully concluded and Irish sovereignty and re-unification secured, then we have to set the agenda - no-one else is going to do that"

Gerry Adams, Politician

"For the state by its nature claims sovereignty, the right to an unlimited development of power, determined only by self-interest. It is by nature anarchistic"

Christian Lous Lange, Politician

"The sovereignty of one's self over one's self is called Liberty"

Albert Pike, Lawyer

"Our first object is... the obtaining of sovereignty, assured by international law, over a portion of the globe sufficiently large to satisfy our just requirements"

Theodor Herzl, Journalist

"Sovereignty is a word that is used often but it has really no specific meaning. Sovereignty today is nominal. Any number of countries that are sovereign are sovereign only nominally and relatively"

Zbigniew Brzezinski, Politician

"The fate of every democracy, of every government based on the sovereignty of the people, depends on the choices it makes between these opposite principles, absolute power on the one hand, and on the other the restraints of legality and the authority of tradition"

John Acton, Historian

"Let sovereignty be granted us over a portion of the earth's surface large enough to satisfy our rightful requirements as a nation. The rest we shall manage for ourselves"

Theodor Herzl, Journalist

"It is only when the people become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into a populace, that they are incapable of exercising their sovereignty"

James Monroe, President

"With the Germans, the sovereignty resided in the great assembly of the people"

John Lothrop Motley, Historian

"Thus the whole country was broken into many shreds and patches of sovereignty"

John Lothrop Motley, Historian

"We owe our troops more than rhetoric; we owe them a real plan. The Administration has yet to put forward a strategy for achieving stability in Iraq, ending the conflict, and handing over sovereignty to the people of Iraq and the new Iraqi government"

Dennis Cardoza, Politician

"As far as the sovereignty of Bosnia-Hercegovina is concerned we agreed to have limited sovereignty for a limited time and that is clear from the Dayton Agreement"

Alija Izetbegovic, Activist

"If the choice were made, one for us to lose our sovereignty and become a member of the Commonwealth or remain with our sovereignty and lose the membership of the Commonwealth, I would say let the Commonwealth go"

Robert Mugabe, Statesman

"There can be no compromises on issues of sovereignty and territorial integrity"

Volodymyr Zelensky, President

"Men live by intervals of reason under the sovereignty of humor and passion"

Thomas Browne, Scientist

"In restoring man from evil sovereignty, we must cheat"

Sun Myung Moon, Clergyman

"Sovereignty must not be used for inflicting harm on anyone, whether citizen or foreigner"

Ludwig von Mises, Economist

"The nations must be organized internationally and induced to enter into partnership, subordinating in some measure national sovereignty to worldwide institutions and obligations"

Arthur Henderson, Politician

"All respect for the office of the presidency aside, I assumed that the obvious and unadulterated decline of freedom and constitutional sovereignty, not to mention the efforts to curb the power of judicial review, spoke for itself"

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Judge

"I think there really is no shortcut to sovereignty"

Paul Bremer, Statesman

"You know, we do not want the militarization of Haiti. We do not see a Haitian as a protectorate where it relinquishes its own sovereignty"

Danny Glover, Actor

"A family on the throne is an interesting idea. It brings down the pride of sovereignty to the level of petty life"

Walter Bagehot, Author

"Vietnam is a peaceful and friendly country that respects the sovereignty of other nations"

Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Politician

"A Supreme Court decision that concessions of this sort were unconstitutional would have taken them off the table and actually increased the effective sovereignty of elected officials"

Michael Kinsley, Journalist

"But I am sure also that from a political point of view, and from a social point of view the federal link, without infringing the sovereignty of any of the nations which might take part in such as association, could be beneficial"

Aristide Briand, Statesman

"It is quite understandable that Puerto Ricans seek to preserve a cultural sense of identity without separating politically from U.S. national sovereignty"

Dick Thornburgh, Politician

"If U.S. national sovereignty continues, it is only as a state that Puerto Rico will have permanent 10th Amendment powers over its non-federal affairs, as well as voting power in Congress"

Dick Thornburgh, Politician

"Iraq may get peace and stability through restoring it's sovereignty under participation of all Iraqi factions and sectarian groups, who must rebuild a new democratic, free and independent Iraq"

Ali A. Saleh

"A transitional government is the beginning of a transfer of sovereignty. It's a question of Iraqi security and moving forward with the political process"

Joschka Fischer, Politician

"We Chileans have to be able to understand that in a democracy institutions must function freely and with sovereignty"

Ricardo Lagos, Politician

"The very heart of being a sovereign nation is providing security of one's borders, of one's internal situation, and security against anyone attacking one's nation. That is the very heart of what I believe is sovereignty"

John Warner, Politician

"Eroticism has its own moral justification because it says that pleasure is enough for me; it is a statement of the individual's sovereignty"

Mario Vargas Llosa, Writer

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