Government Quotes
Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil in its worst state, an intolerable one.Thomas Paine
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
The government deficit is the difference between the amount of money the government spends and the amount it has the nerve to collect.Sam Ewig
Every government is run by liars. Nothing they say should be believed.I. F. Stone 1907 - 1989
A little rebellion now and then... is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.Thomas Jefferson, Letter to James Madison, 1787
The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government they have only a talent for getting and holding office.H. L. Mencken
They who seek to establish systems of government based on the regimentation of all human beings by a handful of individual rulers... call this a new order. It is not new and it is not order.Franklin Delano Roosevelt
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.Thomas Jefferson
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive.Thomas Jefferson
The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way.Henry David Thoreau
President Reagan was elected on the promise of getting government off the backs of the people and now he demands that government wrap itself around the waists of the people.Ralph Nade
The less government we have the better.Ralph Waldo Emerson
Good government generally begins in the family, and if the moral character of a people once degenerate, their political character must soon follow.Elias Boudinot
It is the duty of every patriot to protect his country from its government.Thomas Paine
Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government and business.Tom Robbins
The real question of government versus private enterprise is argued on too philosophical and abstract a basis. Theoretically, planning may be good. But nobody has ever figured out the cause of government stupidity and until they do and find the cure all ideal plans will fall into quicksand.Richard Feynman
I bear solemn witness to the fact that NATO heads of state and of government meet only to go through the tedious motions of reading speeches, drafted by others, with the principal objective of not rocking the boat.Pierre Elliott Trudeau
Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant, and a fearful master.George Washington
On account of us being a democracy and run by the people, we are the only nation in the world that has to keep a government four years, no matter what it does.Will Rogers
The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away.Ronald Reagan
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 government is us we are the government, you and I.Theodore Roosevelt
Government is too big and too important to be left to the politicians.Chester Bowles
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
A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves.Bertrand de Jouvenal
There is no legitimacy on earth but in a government which is the choice of the nation.Joseph Bonaparte
Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is in prison.Henry David Thoreau
Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all - wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.Sir Winston Churchill, Hansard, November 11, 1947
Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.Harry S Truman, August 8, 1950
A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to Farce, or a Tragedy, or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance. and a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.James Madison
A democratic government is only as strong as the alert conscience of its people.Charles W. Tobey
There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.John Adams, Journal, 1772
What government is the best That which teaches us to govern ourselves.Johann von Goethe
There has never been a perfect government, because men have passions and if they did not have passions, there would be no need for government.Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire
The Soviet government is the most realistic regime in the world - No ideals.Golda Mei
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
In the frank expression of conflicting opinions lies the greatest promise of wisdom in governmental action.Louis D. Brandeis
