Government Quotes

When our government is spoken of as some menacing, threatening, foreign entity, it ignores the fact that in our democracy, government is us.

What we should be asking is not whether we need a big government or small government, but how we can create a smarter and better government.

Any government is potentially the worst client in the world you could ever possibly want to have.

In the long-run every Government is the exact symbol of its People, with their wisdom and unwisdom; we have to say, Like People like Government.

The American wage earner and the American housewife are a lot better economists than most economists care to admit. They know that a government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.

In a political sense, there is one problem that currently underlies all of the others. That problem is making Government sufficiently responsive to the people. If we dont make government responsive to the people, we dont make it believable. And we must make government believable if we are to have a functioning democracy.

Before my term has ended, we shall have to test anew whether a nation organized and governed such as ours can endure. The outcome is by no means certain.

There is an important sense in which government is distinctive from administration. One is perpetual, the other is temporary and changeable. A man may be loyal to his government and yet oppose the particular principles and methods of administration.

While the people retain their virtue, and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the government, in the short space of four years.

We must judge of a form of government by its general tendency, not by happy accidents.

I believe that truth is the glue that holds government together , not only our government but civilization itself. That bond, though strained, is unbroken at home and abroad.

The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them right away.

If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.

If the government is big enough to give you everything you want, it is big enough to take away everything you have.

Many people consider the things which government does for them as social progress, but they consider the things government does for others as socialism.

It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.

Sure there are dishonest men in local government. But there are dishonest men in national government too.

There's no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you.

You will find that the State is the kind of organization which, though it does big things badly, does small things badly, too.

Government is too big and too important to be left to the politicians.

For every action there is an equal and opposite government program.

The mystery of government is not how Washington works but how to make it stop.

Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government and business.

So they [the Government] go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent.

There is no nonsense so arrant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action.

You know what's interesting about Washington? It's the kind of place where second-guessing has become second nature.

Whenever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship.

After two years in Washington, I often long for the realism and sincerity of Hollywood.

When dictatorship is a fact, revolution becomes a right.

The act of policing is, in order to punish less often, to punish more severely.

Once abolish the God, and the government becomes the God.

Congress, after years of stalling, finally got around to clearing the way for informal discussions that might lead to possible formal talks that could potentially produce some kind of tentative agreements...

A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side.

Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms.

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 government to the utmost.

In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.

There is no kind of dishonesty into which otherwise good people more easily and frequently fall than that of defrauding the government.

From such beginnings of governments, what could be expected, but a continual system of war and extortion?

Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.

That government is best which governs least.

Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.

The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments.

The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments.

I'm completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.

When we got into office, the thing that surprised me the most was that things were as bad as we'd been saying they were.

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

Socialism: An attempt to curb the destructive power of monopolies by creating the biggest one of all.

To cure the British disease with socialism was like trying to cure leukaemia with leeches.

An oppressive government is more to be feared than a tiger.

I would like to electrocute everyone who uses the word 'fair' in connection with income tax policies.

The best defense against usurpatory government is an assertive citizenry.

The best defense against usurpatory government is an assertive citizenry.

Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice, without constraint.

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men the great difficulty lies in this: You must first enable the government to control the governed, and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.

How can you be expected to govern a country that has 246 kinds of cheese?

Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations -- entangling alliances with none.

Anyone who is not an anarchist agrees with having a policeman at the corner of the street; but the danger at present is that of finding the policeman half-way down the chimney or even under the bed.

How lucky for those in power that people don't think.

Of course the people dont want war...that is understood. But voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.

The government is best which governs least.

An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, the power to destroy.

There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters.

Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions.

Our destruction, should it come at all, will be from another quarter. From the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government.

The contest for ages has been to rescue liberty from the grasp of executive power.

The statesman who would attempt to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their capitals, would not only load himeslf with a most unnecessary attention, but assume an authority which could safetly be trusted to no council and senate whatever, and which would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of a man who had folly and presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exercise it.

Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice: all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things.

The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away.

I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.

The prosperity of a country can be seen simply in how it treats its old people.

A conference is a gathering of important people who singly can do nothing, but together can decide that nothing can be done.

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.

The Social Contract is nothing more or less than a vast conspiracy of human beings to lie to and humbug themselves and one another for the general good. Lies are the mortar that bind the savage individual man into the social masonry.

Government consists in nothing else but so controlling subjects that they shall neither be able to, nor have cause to do it harm.

A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts either of them.

A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts either of them.

The great principle which this house ought to guard and cherish is that, when the tax collector comes to the private citizen and takes from him of his wealth for the services of the public, the whole of that money taken shall go for the purposes for which it is intended, and that no private interests, however powerfully they may be organized and however eloquently advocated, shall thrust their dirty fingers into the pie and take the profits for themselves.

A popular Government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a 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 knowledge gives.

The history of liberty is a history of limitation of government power, not the increase of it.

...a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.

It must be felt that there is no national security but in the nation's humble acknowledged dependence upon God and His overruling providence.

The statesman who would attempt to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their capitals, would not only load himeslf with a most unnecessary attention, but assume an authority which could safely be trusted to no council and senate whatever, and which would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of a man who had folly and presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exercise it.

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all.

The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.Workers of all countries...unite!

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.

In the counsels of Government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the Military Industrial Complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes.

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.

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.

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel or envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

The great nations have always acted like gangsters, and the small nations like prostitutes.

Freedom of opinion can only exist when the government thinks itself secure.

I didn't come to Washington to be loved and I haven't been disappointed.

It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.

The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.

Where there is a lack of honor in government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned.

The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten.

Men speak of natural rights, but I challenge any one to show where in nature any rights existed or were recognized until there was established for their declaration and protection a duly promulgated body of corresponding laws.

Government does not tax to get the money it needs; government always finds a need for the money it gets.

If we have Senators and Congressmen there that can't protect themselves against the evil temptations of lobbyists, we don't need to change our lobbies, we need to change our representatives.

Are you entitled to the fruits of your labor or does government have some presumptive right to spend and spend and spend?

No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size.

A government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth.

Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.

As government expands, liberty contracts.

Nations crumble from within when the citizenry asks of government those things which the citizenry might better provide for itself.

I think the best possible social program is a job.

The federal government has taken too much tax money from the people, too much authority from the states, and too much liberty with the Constitution.

Outside of its legitimate function, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector.

Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem.

We've been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of government himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else?

Egalitarians create the most dangerous inequality of all -- inequality of power. Allowing politicians to determine what all other human beings will be allowed to earn is one of the most reckless gambles imaginable. Like the income tax, it may start off being applied only to the rich but it will inevitably reach us all.

Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.

Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.

I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.

I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.

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.

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.

Every government is a scoundrel.

The new rage is to say that the government is the cause of all our problems, and if only we had no government, we'd have no problems. I can tell you, that contradicts evidence, history, and common sense.

Today we can declare: Government is not the problem, and government is not the solution. We, the American people, we are the solution.

No government can love a child, and no policy can substitute for a family's care.

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.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.

If ever time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.

Every step we take towards making the State our Caretaker of our lives, by that much we move toward making the State our Master.

Now more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness and corruption.

The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.

The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government -- lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.

History, in general, only informs us what bad government is.

A man may be loyal to his government and yet oppose the particular principles and methods of administration.

Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for.

I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.

No nation keeps its word. A nation is a big, blind worm, following what? Fate perhaps. A nation has no honor, it has no word to keep.

The most dangerous moment for a bad government is when it begins to reform.

To those new States whom we welcome to the ranks of the free, we pledge our word that one form of colonial control shall not have passed away merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny.

A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt...If the game runs sometime against us at home, we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake.

So long as governments set the example of killing their enemies, private individuals will occasionally kill theirs.