quotations about government
Let a ruler base his government upon virtuous principles, and he will be like the pole-star, which remains steadfast in its place, while all the host of stars turn towards it.
CONFUCIUS
The Wisdom of Confucius
In some respects government is like a game; before the players can even take the field to compete, they need to agree on a set of rules that decide how the game is to be played. Constitutions are the rules of the political game - who can vote, who can stand for office, what powers they are to have, the rights and duties of citizens and so on. Without these basic rules politics would degenerate into arbitrariness, brute force, or anarchy.
KENNETH NEWTON & JAN W. VAN DETH
Foundations of Comparative Politics
Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Notes on Virginia
A government may endure for several ages, though the balance of power and the balance of property do not coincide. This chiefly happens where any rank or order of the state has acquired a large share in the property; but, from the original constitution of the government, has no share in the power. Under what pretence would any individual of that order assume authority in public affairs? As men are commonly much attached to their ancient government, it is not to be expected, that the public would ever favour such usurpations. But where the original constitution allows any share of power, though small, to an order of men who possess a large share of property, it is easy for them gradually to stretch their authority, and bring the balance of power to coincide with that of property.
DAVID HUME
"Of the First Principles of Government", Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary
The family is the basic cell of government: it is where we are trained to believe that we are human beings or that we are chattel, it is where we are trained to see the sex and race divisions and become callous to injustice even if it is done to ourselves, to accept as biological a full system of authoritarian government.
GLORIA STEINEM
speech, July 1981
Our predecessors understood that government could not, and should not, solve every problem. They understood that there are instances when the gains in security from government action are not worth the added constraints on our freedom. But they also understood that the danger of too much government is matched by the perils of too little; that without the leavening hand of wise policy, markets can crash, monopolies can stifle competition, the vulnerable can be exploited. And they knew that when any government measure, no matter how carefully crafted or beneficial, is subject to scorn; when any efforts to help people in need are attacked as un-American; when facts and reason are thrown overboard and only timidity passes for wisdom, and we can no longer even engage in a civil conversation with each other over the things that truly matter -- that at that point we don't merely lose our capacity to solve big challenges. We lose something essential about ourselves.
BARACK OBAMA
speech to joint session of Congress, sep. 9, 2009
In theory, the government of a free people is not one which shall in all circumstances govern, but one that shall effectually govern while it is maintaining right against wrong, and shall begin to fall in pieces as soon as it begins to maintain wrong against right. No country is truly free whose constitution does not furnish the citizen with protection against the wrong-doing of other citizens, and also guarantee him against the wrong-doing of the government itself. No oppressor is so intolerable as an oppressive government; for the private oppressor acts with his own force only, while the governmental oppressor acts with the irresistible force of the whole people.
WILLIAM BATCHELDER GREENE
Socialistic
I say, then, that the unhindered will of the wisest and best person would be the ideal government; without danger, for I mean one so wise and good that power would be no temptation to selfishness, no maker of fractiousness or mover of wrath or enticer to wealth, but a heavy weight of responsibility. The will of such a magistrate would be the best government, for even if he were not so wise as the combined wisdom of all the wise and good of the nation, perforce he would be better far, both in purposes and in understanding, than the level of all the good and all the bad together in a multitude.
JAMES VILA BLAKE
"Of Government", Essays
Government has almost always been a barrier against which intellect has had to struggle; and society has made its chief progress by the minds of private individuals, who have outstripped their rulers, and gradually shamed them into truth and wisdom.
WILLIAM E. CHANNING
Thoughts
While legislation can stimulate and encourage, the real creative ability which builds up and develops the country, and in general makes human existence more tolerable and life more complete, has to be supplied by the genius of the people themselves. The Government can supply no substitute for enterprise.
CALVIN COOLIDGE
speech, Jul. 4, 1924
We are not to expect perfection in this world; but mankind, in modern times, have apparently made some progress in the science of government.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
letter to the Marquis de Lafayette, Feb. 7, 1788
All governments require enemy governments.
EDWARD ABBEY
A Voice Crying in the Wilderness
For government; let it be in the hands of one, assisted with some counsel; and let them have commission to exercise martial laws, with some limitation. And above all, let men make that profit, of being in the wilderness, as they have God always, and his service, before their eyes.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Plantations", The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral
All government is an ugly necessity.
G. K. CHESTERTON
A Short History of England
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 which knowledge gives.
JAMES MADISON
letter to W. T. Barry, Aug. 4, 1822
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
letter to Colonel Charles Yancey, January 6, 1816
Ceremonies are the first thing to be attended to in the practice of government.
CONFUCIUS
The Wisdom of Confucius
All government is cruel; for nothing is so cruel as impunity.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
On the Rocks
Yet it is instructive to trace the various causes, which produced the strength of one nation, and the decline and weakness of another; to learn by what arts one man has been able to subjugate millions of his fellow creatures, the motives which have put him upon action, and the causes of his success--sometimes driven by ambition and a lust of power; at other times, swallowed up by religious enthusiasms, blind bigotry, and ignorant zeal; sometimes enervated with luxury and debauched by pleasure, until the most powerful nations have become a prey and been subdued by these Sirens, when neither the number of their enemies, nor the prowess of their arms, could conquer them.
ABIGAIL ADAMS
letter to John Quincy Adams, December 26, 1783
The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.
JAMES MADISON
speech at Virginia State Convention, Dec. 2, 1829