Government Quotes
If our democracy is to flourish, it must have criticism if our government is to function it must have dissent.Henry Commage
All free governments are managed by the combined wisdom and folly of the people.James Abram Garfield
I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.Dwight D. Eisenhowe
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
There is no legitimacy on earth but in a government which is the choice of the nation.Joseph Bonaparte
Government is too big and too important to be left to the politicians.Chester Bowles
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 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
Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.Thomas Jefferson
Over grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.George Washington
The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away.Ronald Reagan
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 best government rests on the people, and not on the few, on persons and not on property, on the free development of public opinion and not on authority.George Bancroft
Besides anarchy, the worst thing in this world is government.Henry Ward Beeche
Government cannot make us equal it can only recognize, respect, and protect us as equal before the law.Clarence Thomas
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
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
We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.Thomas Jefferson
I believe that truth is the glue that holds government together, not only our government but civilization itself.Gerald R. Ford, Inaugural Address, 9 August 1974
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
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
If liberty and equality, as is thought by some are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost.Aristotle, Politics
Its embarrassing, you try to overthrow the government and you wind up on a Best Sellers List.Abbie Hoffman, In response to the success of his book; Steal this Book
Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or ill, it teaches the whole people by its example.Louis D. Brandeis
Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.George Washington
In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one part of the citizens to give to the other.Voltaire, The Portable Voltaire
Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. The history of liberty is a history of resistance. The history of liberty is a history of limitations of governmental power, not the increase of it.Nadia Boulange
The Second Amendment reveals a profound principle of American government - The principle of civilian ascendency over the military.William Orville Douglas
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
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
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
The office of government is not to confer happiness, but to give men the opportunity to work out happiness for themselves.William Ellery Channing
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
Our government sprang from and was made for the people - - Not the people for the government. To them it owes an allegiance from them it must derive its courage, strength, and wisdom.Andrew Johnson
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive.Thomas Jefferson
What government is the best That which teaches us to govern ourselves.Johann von Goethe
The process of creating new, democratic organs of government power is beginning, and, as never before, the greatest responsibility rests with the broadcast media.Eduard Sagalaev
