Suffrage is the pivotal right.
The average man votes below himself; he votes with half a mind or a hundredth part of one. A man ought to vote with the whole of himself, as he worships or gets married. A man ought to vote with his head and heart, his soul and stomach, his eye for faces and his ear for music; also (when sufficiently provoked) with his hands and feet. If he has ever seen a fine sunset, the crimson colour of it should creep into his vote ... The question is not so much whether only a minority of the electorate votes. The point is that only a minority of the voter votes.
Those who stay away from the election think that one vote will do no good: 'Tis but one step more to think one vote will do no harm.
The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.
I just received the following wire from my generous Daddy - "Dear Jack, Don't buy a single vote more than is necessary. I'll be damned if I'm going to pay for a landslide."
The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.
To make democracy work, we must be a notion of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.
Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets.
Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.
The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal - that you can gather votes like box tops - is, I think, the ultimate indignity to the democratic process.
