Government Quotes
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive.Thomas Jefferson
It has been observed that a pure democracy if it were practicable would be the most perfect government. Experience has proved that no position is more false than this. The ancient democracies in which the people themselves deliberated never possessed one good feature of government. Their very character was tyranny their figure deformity.Alexander Hamilton
The teaching of politics is that the Government, which was set for protection and comfort of all good citizens, becomes the principal obstruction and nuisance with which we have to contend? The cheat and bully and malefactor we meet everywhere is the Government.Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journal, 1860
By definition, a government has no conscience. Sometimes it has a policy, but nothing more.Albert Camus
Public confidence in the integrity of the Government is indispensable to faith in democracy; and when we lose faith in the system, we have lost faith in everything we fight and spend for.Adlai E. Stevenson Jr.
The incestuous relationship between government and big business thrives in the dark.Jack Anderson
No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets.Edward Abbey
The 1976 Bicentennial is not going to be invented in Washington, printed in triplicate by the Government Printing Office and mailed to you by the United States Postal Service.Richard Milhous Nixon
The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish Government, presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established Government.George Washington
Under the doctrine of separation of powers, the manner in which the president personally exercises his assigned executive powers is not subject to questioning by another branch of government.Richard Milhous Nixon
The Interstate Commerce commission, as its functions have now been limited by the courts is, or can be made, of great use to the railroads. It satisfies the public clamor for a government supervision of railroads, at the same time that that supervision is almost entirely nominal.Richard Olney, a lawyer for the Boston & Maine and Attorney General under Grover Cleveland, advising a railroad president
Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice, without constraint.Alexander Hamilton
I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.H. L. Mencken
No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets.Edward Abbey
A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.George Bernard Shaw
Christmas is a time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell the government what they want - And their kids pay for it.Richard Lamm
The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered... deeply... finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.George Washington
No government ought to be without censors & where the press is free, no one ever will.Thomas Jefferson, letter to George Washington, September 9, 1792
I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it.Dwight D Eisenhowe
If our democracy is to flourish, it must have criticism; if our government is to function it must have dissent.Henry Commage
A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves.Bertrand de Jouvenal
He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place and all the stars turn towards it.Confucius, The Confucian Analects
When you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship.Harry S Truman
The art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of the citizens to give to the other.Voltaire
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until a majority of voters discover that they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury.Alexander Tyle
Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.Ronald Reagan
All the taxes paid over a lifetime by the average American are spent by the government in less than a second.Jim Fiebig
The mightiest of weapons is truth. And everyone knows you? re not permitted to enter a Government building with a weapon.John Alejandro King, a. k. a. The Covert Comic, www. covertcomic. com
Judge of thine improvement, not by what thou speakest or writest, but by the firmness of thy mind, and the government of thy passions and affections.Thomas Fulle
The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.Thomas Jefferson
Many people consider the things which government does for them to be social progress, but they consider the things government does for others as socialism.Chief Justice Earl Warren
The function of government ought to be: make sure you have good water to drink, somebody picking up the garbage, good roads to drive on, enough electricity to turn your light bulbs and your record player on, and whatever smaller amounts of regulatory assistance is necessary to make this society work.Frank Zappa, Interview with this submitter, New York City, 5/08/1980
Democracy is a form of government in which it is permitted to wonder aloud what the country could do under first - Class management.Senator Soape
Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil in its worst state, an intolerable one.Thomas Paine
Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.George Washington
Religion... is the basis and foundation of government... before any man can be considered as a member of civil society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe.James Madison
A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away.Barry Goldwate