Government Quotes
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
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
Take away the right to say fuck and you take away the right to say fuck the government.Lenny Bruce
Asking to meet with Italian businessmen instead of government officials. I want to talk to these people because they stay in power and you change all the time.Nikita Khrushchev
Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the governing of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address
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
No dictator, no invader, can hold an imprisoned population by force of arms forever. There is no greater power in the universe than the need for freedom. Against that power, governments and tyrants and armies cannot stand. The Centauri learned this lesson once. We will teach it to them again. Though it take a thousand years, we will be free.J. Michael Straczynski
A revolution of government is the strongest proof that can be given by a people of their virtue and good sense.John Adams, (Diary, 1786)
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.Edward Abbey
Governments never learn. Only people learn.Milton Friedman
The one bonus of not lifting the ban on gays in the military is that the next time the government mandates a draft, we can all declare we are homosexual instead of running off to Canada.Lorne Bloch
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
Manufacturing and commercial monopolies owe their origin not to a tendency imminent in a capitalist economy but to governmental interventionist policy directed against free trade and laissez faire.Ludwig Mises
We hold these truths to be self - Evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments a.Thomas Jefferson
It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia
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 believe and I say it is true Democratic feeling, that all the measures of the government are directed tot he purpose of making the rich richer and the poor poorer.William Henry Harrison, Speech, October 1, 1840
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
We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.John Adams
Freedom of opinion can only exist when the government thinks itself secure.Bertrand Russell
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
Sure there are dishonest men in local government. But there are dishonest men in national government too.Richard M. Nixon
No government can be long secure without formidable opposition.Benjamin Disraeli
Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated.Gilbert Keith Chesterton
Whenever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship.Harry S Truman, Lecture at Columbia University, 28 Apr. 1959
So long as governments set the example of killing their enemies, private citizens will occasionally kill their. s.Elbert Hubbard
When I am abroad, I always make it a rule never to criticize or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home.Sir Winston Churchill
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 government could create jobs and raise children, socialism would have worked.George Gilde
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
Our constitution works. Our great republic is a government of laws, not of men.Gerald R. Ford, on becoming President, Aug. 9, 1974
Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is in prison.Henry David Thoreau
The art of government is the organization of idolatry.George Bernard Shaw
Of all the inventions that have helped to unify China perhaps the airplane is the most outstanding. Its ability to annihilate distance has been in direct proportion to its achievements in assisting to annihilate suspicion and misunderstanding among provincial officials far removed from one another or from the officials at the seat of government.Madame Chiang
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.Voltaire
All in all, I am not surprised that the people who want to unravel the social contract start with young adults. Those who are urged to feel afraid, very afraid, have both the greatest sense of independence and the most finely honed skepticism about government.Ellen Goodman
All free governments are managed by the combined wisdom and folly of the people.James Abram Garfield
