Cleisthenes

"The assembly is the truest mirror of a nation's character."

"In creating equal tribes, I created equal responsibility for all."

"The voice of the merchant is no more valuable than the voice of the laborer in true democracy."

"What is born in assembly can only die in assembly."

"To participate is to exist; to be silent is to be erased."

"The walls of Athens will crumble, but the principles of democracy can endure forever."

"A vote is not a favor; it is a responsibility born of citizenship."

"The reforms I have enacted are not perfect, but they are mine and yours together."

"Oppression thrives in isolation; freedom flourishes in assembly."

"The ostracism vote is democracy's way of saying no to those who would say no to democracy."

"In giving the people power, I have given them the burden of themselves."

"The future belongs not to the strongest, but to those who learn to govern themselves."

"To question authority is not sedition; it is the highest form of citizenship."

"The law that protects the great protects the small; the law that harms the small condemns the great."

"A democracy without informed citizens is a ship without a compass."

"The strength of the many outweighs the wisdom of the few."

"When a man can be removed by his peers, he serves his peers rather than himself."

"I have not ended inequality, but I have given the powerless a way to fight it."

"The true revolution is not violent; it is institutional."

"A society that listens to all voices will hear both truth and falsehood; that is the price of freedom."

"The tribe you are born into is accident; the choices you make are character."

"To govern without the consent of the governed is to govern by theft."

"The assembly teaches that disagreement need not be division."

"Power that flows from many channels is power that cannot be dammed by one hand."

"In democracy, the minority is protected not from the majority, but by the majority's principles."

"The reforms I have given are seeds; you must tend them or they will wither."

"A citizen without a voice is a citizen with no stake in tomorrow."

"The law should bend to accommodate all, not break those who do not fit its mold."

"What Solon began, I have completed; what you maintain will endure."

"The public trust is the highest trust; it must be guarded as the most precious thing."