Government Quotes

I want to make a policy statement. I am unabashedly in favor of women. On appointing 10 women to top government positions.
Lyndon B. Johnson
Thomas paine - government, even in its best state, is but a...
The First Amendment is often inconvenient. But that is besides the point. Inconvenience does not absolve the government of its obligation to tolerate speech.
Justice Anthony Kennedy
Ralph nade - president reagan was elected on the promise of...
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
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
Different men seek after happiness in different ways and by different means, and so make for themselves different modes of life and forms of government.
Aristotle
Universal suffrage is the government of a house by its nursery.
Prince Otto
Democracy means government by discussion, but it is only effective if you can stop people talking.
Clement Atlee
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
The art of government is the organization of idolatry.
George Bernard Shaw
Ambrose bierce - in our civilization, and under our republican...
The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments.
William H. Borah
No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets.
Edward Abbey
Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government...
Thomas Jefferson (The Declaration of Independence)
Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.
Abraham Lincoln
Our constitution works. Our great republic is a government of laws, not of men.
Gerald R. Ford, on becoming President, Aug. 9, 1974
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 less government we have the better.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
Thomas Jefferson
All free governments are managed by the combined wisdom and folly of the people.
James Abram Garfield
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
The most valuable function performed by the federal government is entertainment.
Dave Barry
The government is us we are the government, you and I.
Theodore Roosevelt
If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.
Thomas Jefferson
The Second Amendment reveals a profound principle of American government - The principle of civilian ascendency over the military.
William Orville Douglas
This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can excercise their constitutional right of amending it, or excercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it.
Abraham Lincoln
Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or ill, it teaches the whole people by its example.
Louis D. Brandeis
Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton
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
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, Speech on 21 June 1788 urging ratification of the Constitution in New York.
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
If our democracy is to flourish, it must have criticism if our government is to function it must have dissent.
Henry Commage
In the frank expression of conflicting opinions lies the greatest promise of wisdom in governmental action.
Louis D. Brandeis
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.
Thomas Jefferson
I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.
H. L. Mencken
That government is best which governs least. - From Civil Disobedience.
Henry David Thoreau
If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual.
Frank Herbert, The Dosadi Experiment
Whenever is found what is called a paternal government, there is found state education. It has been discovered that the best way to ensure implicit obedience is to commence tyranny in the nursery.
Benjamin Disraeli
A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
George Bernard Shaw